Abstract #2718

Identifying Appropriate Contrast MR Images to Construct a Digital Head Phantom for Functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy

Hiroshi Kawaguchi¹, Takayuki Obata¹,², Kazuki Kurihara³, Yosuke Takahashi³, Eiji Okada³, Hiroshi Ito¹

¹Molecular Imaging Center, National Institute of Radiological Sciences, Chiba, Japan; ²Research Center for Charged Particle Therapy, National Institute of Radiological Sciences, Chiba, Japan; ³Department of Electronics and Electrical Engineering, Keio University, Yokohama, Japan

Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) requires a realistic three-dimensional digital head phantom (based on the segmentation of anatomical head images) to improve the accuracy of image reconstruction and visualization of image data. We test several MR imaging protocols, i.e. T2-weighted (T2W), Fat saturated proton-density (FSPDW) and FIESTA image, for their suitability to extract the scalp, skull and CSF in the subarachnoid space to construct a digital head phantom for fNIRS. The combination of FIESTA and FSPDW produced more accurate results when segmenting the superficial tissues. Furthermore, the combined acquisition time of FIESTA and FSPDW is shorter than that of T2W.