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Abstract #0156

Estimating microstructural properties of a biomimetic tumour tissue phantom using diffusion-weighted MRI

Damien J McHugh 1,2 , Fenglei Zhou 1,3 , Penny L Hubbard Cristinacce 1,2 , Josephine H Naish 1,2 , and Geoff J M Parker 1,2

1 Centre for Imaging Sciences, The University of Manchester, Manchester, United Kingdom, 2 Biomedical Imaging Institute, The University of Manchester, Manchester, United Kingdom, 3 Materials Science Centre, The University of Manchester, Manchester, United Kingdom

In this work we introduce a novel phantom with microstructural characteristics mimicking tumour cellular structure, consisting of a collection of roughly spherical polymer structures. A two-compartment biophysical model was applied to diffusion data acquired over a range of gradient strengths and diffusion times, allowing the size and volume fraction of the cells to be estimated. The radius was slightly underestimated compared with that determined from scanning electron microscope measurements, the fitted volume fraction was plausible, and parameters were found to be estimated with reasonably good precision. Such phantoms may be useful for testing microstructural models of the diffusion signal, and for scanner and protocol calibration.

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