Prototype designing of a simple flow phantom system for MRI assuming the movement of cerebrospinal fluid driven by heartbeat and respiration

Abstract

The movement of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) in the spinal canal shows a reciprocating field formed by heartbeat and respiration. In this study, a prototype CSF phantom device that can generate driving pressures to simulate various pathological conditions and can be used for diagnostic imaging by MRI, assuming different cycles of heartbeat and respiration, will be developed. A CSF phantom with a simple double circular tube structure is connected to two bellows actuators that put a water tank under pressure to simulate the flow of the human body. In the future, time-resolved images taken by MRI can be associated with physical quantities such as pressure and used as training data for AI.