On the Design of a Pelvic Phantom for Magentic Resononance and Utltrasound Image Fusion

The purpose of this paper is to introduce a customized multi- modality phantom designed to facilitate the proof-of-concept of MRI/ultrasound fusion approaches. Phantom experiments are often required before in vivo validation, giving access to more challenging data than numerical simulations. Nevertheless, manufactured phantoms are expensive and usually lack of flexibility. In contrast, the proposed model was inexpensive and accurately designed to overcome multimodal registration issues.

1. INTRODUCTION

Ultrasound (US) and Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) are both routinely used in clinical practice, particularly in the field of gynecology. Due to the differences in their own imaging process, they present specific strengths and limits. Indeed, US images provide real time high-resolution images with enhanced anatomic landmarks but suffer from low signal to noise ratio and reduced field of view. Conversely, MRI offers a wide field of view with a good signal to noise ratio while its lower spatial resolution hinders the recognition of millimetric anatomic details. Hence, information triggered by both modalities are often required to accurately identify and plan the treatment of numerous conditions.