Development of a myocardial perfusion phantom

Finished: 2019-07-18

MSc assignment

Myocardial perfusion imaging (MPI), or, simply put, the imaging of the blood flow in the heart muscle, plays an important role in diagnosing heart failure. Imaging systems like CT, MRI, SPECT, or PET can visualise a (radioactive) contrast bolus in the supplying arteries and in underlying myocardial tissue. The obtained flow images can give an indication of narrowed or blocked blood vessels.

Many variations in the imaging of myocardial perfusion, including hard- and software, can (significantly) influence the outcome and in turn have consequences for patient treatment. These variations need to be validated against a well-known baseline. 

The goal of the project is to develop a prototype myocardial perfusion phantom capable of reproducible simulations of typical and cardiac defect situations using clinical software commonly used in myocardial perfusion scans. Most software packages require anatomical landmarks which imposes requirements on the phantom. In addition, the phantom can be used for educational and training purposes to demonstrate the impact of (poorly) chosen variables, e.g. pressure or flow, scanning parameters, cardiac defects, and so forth.