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A Novel Flow Quantification Quality Assurance Method Using Power Injector

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H Ai

H Ai1*, T Clevenger2, C Lin3, (1) Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana, (2) Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana, (3) Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN

WE-C-116-9 Wednesday 10:30AM - 12:30PM Room: 116

Purpose: To develop a practical flow quantification quality assurance method based on a simple and compact flow phantom driven by a power injector.

Methods:A flow phantom was made using acrylic with U-shaped tubes built inside the chamber and immersed in stationary saline. A MR power injector equipped with the MR scanner was used to inject up to 110 mL of saline through the tube with 4.76 mm inner diameter at a precise rate of 2.00+/-0.01 mL/s. 2D phase contrast flow quantification was performed with a single imaging slice of 10mm perpendicular to the straight sections of the U-shape tube on two different models of 1.5T MR scanners (Siemens Espree and Aera). Flow rates in two opposite directions were measured from phase contrast images using Siemens ARGUS software. Eight repeat measurements were performed for each scanner.

Results:The flow rates measured on the Espree scanner were +2.15+/-0.06 mL/s with 7.45% difference from the 2mL/s flow rate provided by the power injector and -2.17+/-0.03mL/s with 8.7% difference. On the Aera scanner, the flow rates were +1.90+/-0.03mL/s with 4.8% difference from the 2mL/s produced by the power injector and -1.99+/-0.02mL/s with 0.6% difference. The measured flow rates were different from the true flow rate for both scanners and the error were different between scanners.

Conclusion:Our proposed method of quality assurance using a simple flow phantom driven by a power injector was able to detect the errors in flow quantification for both scanner as well as the difference between two scanners. Such method can be implemented on many clinical MR scanners already equipped with a power injector.

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