Abstract
There is increasing need for magnetic resonance microimaging (MRMI) measurements of tissues and cells of organisms to be nondestructive and accurate. However, no objective method is yet available for evaluating the spatial resolution of MRMI. Therefore, this study attempted a simple evaluation of spatial resolution of MRMI captured by 3T MRI of clinical equipment. In this evaluation, a phantom was inserted into an NMR tube (outer diameter 10mm) filled with copper sulfate solution. The phantom is a double structure comprising a thin capillary tube inserted in a thick capillary tube. The outer diameter of the capillary tube was measured using a micrometer. Images of the capillary tubes were captured using image-processing clinical 3T MRI equipment. From the captured image, the outer diameter of the inner capillary tube and the inside diameter of the outer capillary tube were determined. The outer diameter of the outer capillary determined from the image was nearly consistent with that measured using the micrometer; therefore, the capillary tube method was confirmed as being reasonably accurate. Further, the MR image captured by the clinical 3T MRI equipment was found to have a spatial resolution of about 20-40µm.
