In this paper, we review the value of phantoms for body MRI in the context of their uses for quantitative MRI methods research, clinical trials, and clinical imaging. Certain uses of phantoms are common throughout the body MRI community, including measuring bias, assessing reproducibility, and training. In addition to these uses, phantoms in body MRI methods research are used for novel methods development and the design of motion compensation and mitigation techniques. For clinical trials, phantoms are an essential part of quality management strategies, facilitating the conduct of ethically sound, reliable, and regulatorily compliant clinical research of both novel MRI methods and therapeutic agents. In the clinic, phantoms are used for development of protocols, mitigation of cost, quality control, and radiotherapy. We briefly review phantoms developed for quantitative body MRI, and finally, we review open questions regarding the most effective use of a phantom for body MRI.

To review and analyze the currently available MRI motion phantoms. Publications were collected from the Toronto Metropolitan University Library, PubMed, and IEEE Xplore. Phantoms were categorized based on the motions they generated: linear/cartesian, cardiac-dilative, lung-dilative, rotational, deformation or rolling. Metrics were extracted from each publication to assess the motion mechanisms, construction methods, as well as phantom validation. A total of 60 publications were reviewed, identifying 48 unique motion phantoms. Translational movement was the most common movement (used in 38% of phantoms), followed by cardiac-dilative (27%) movement and rotational movement (23%). The average degrees of freedom for all phantoms were determined to be 1.42. Motion phantom publications lack quantification of their impact on signal-to-noise ratio through standardized testing. At present, there is a lack of phantoms that are designed for multi-role as many currently have few degrees of freedom.

Photoacoustic imaging (PAI), also referred to as optoacoustic imaging, has shown promise in early-stage clinical trials in a range of applications from inflammatory diseases to cancer. While the first PAI systems have recently received regulatory approvals, successful adoption of PAI technology into healthcare systems for clinical decision making must still overcome a range of barriers, from education and training to data acquisition and interpretation. The International Photoacoustic Standardisation Consortium (IPASC) undertook an community exercise in 2022 to identify and understand these barriers, then develop a roadmap of strategic plans to address them. Here, we outline the nature and scope of the barriers that were identified, along with short-, medium- and long-term community efforts required to overcome them, both within and beyond the IPASC group.

Photoacoustic imaging (PAI) is a powerful emerging technology with broad clinical applications, but consensus test methods are needed to standardize performance evaluation and accelerate translation.
To review consensus image quality test methods for mature imaging modalities [ultrasound, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), x-ray CT, and x-ray mammography], identify best practices in phantom design and testing procedures, and compare against current practices in PAI phantom testing.
We reviewed scientific papers, international standards, clinical accreditation guidelines, and professional society recommendations describing medical image quality test methods. Observations are organized by image quality characteristics (IQCs), including spatial resolution, geometric accuracy, imaging depth, uniformity, sensitivity, low-contrast detectability, and artifacts.
Consensus documents typically prescribed phantom geometry and material property requirements, as well as specific data acquisition and analysis protocols to optimize test consistency and reproducibility. While these documents considered a wide array of IQCs, reported PAI phantom testing focused heavily on in-plane resolution, depth of visualization, and sensitivity. Understudied IQCs that merit further consideration include out-of-plane resolution, geometric accuracy, uniformity, low-contrast detectability, and co-registration accuracy.
Available medical image quality standards provide a blueprint for establishing consensus best practices for photoacoustic image quality assessment and thus hastening PAI technology advancement, translation, and clinical adoption.

OBJECTIVE: To provide a systematic review of available brain MRI phantoms for comparison of structural and functional characteristics.
METHODS: Phantoms were identified from a literature search using two databases including Google Scholar and PubMed. Narrow inclusion criteria were followed for identification of only tissue-mimicking MRI phantoms excluding digital, computational, or numerical phantoms. Assessment criteria for the identified phantoms was based on three categories being anatomical accuracy, tissue-mimicking materials, and exhibiting relaxation times approximating in-vivo tissues. The available features and uses of each phantom were reported and discussed using the assessment criteria.
RESULTS: Ten phantoms were identified after screening; each proposed phantom was then summarized in a table (Table 2). Significant features and characteristics were shown in the comparisons of phantom type in each category, being anthropomorphic vs. traditional phantoms. Anthropomorphic phantoms had more anatomically accurate features than traditional phantoms. On the other hand, traditional phantoms commonly used effective tissue-mimicking materials and accurate electromagnetic properties.
CONCLUSIONS: The findings provide an overview of the different proposed tissue-mimicking MRI brain phantoms available. Various uses and features are highlighted by comparing criteria such as anatomical accuracy, tissue-mimicking material, and electromagnetic properties. Tissue-mimicking MRI phantoms are an extremely useful tool for researchers and clinicians. Future applications include personalized phantom technology and validation of MR imaging and segmentation methods.

Within the brachytherapy community, many phantoms are constructed in-house, and less commercial development is observed as compared to the field of external beam. Computational or virtual phantom design has seen considerable growth; however, physical phantoms are beneficial for brachytherapy, in which quality is dependent on physical processes, such as accuracy of source placement. Focusing on the design of physical phantoms, this review paper presents a summary of brachytherapy specific phantoms in published journal articles over the last twenty years (January 1, 2000 - December 31, 2019). The papers were analyzed and tabulated by their primary clinical purpose, which was deduced from their associated publications. A substantial body of work has been published on phantom designs from the brachytherapy community, but a standardized method of reporting technical aspects of the phantoms is lacking. In-house phantom development demonstrates an increasing interest in magnetic resonance (MR) tissue mimicking materials, which is not yet reflected in commercial phantoms available for brachytherapy. The evaluation of phantom design provides insight into the way, in which brachytherapy practice has changed over time, and demonstrates the customised and broad nature of treatments offered.

Tissue mimicking materials (TMMs), typically contained within phantoms, have been used for many decades in both imaging and therapeutic applications. This review investigates the specifications that are typically being used in development of the latest TMMs. The imaging modalities that have been investigated focus around CT, mammography, SPECT, PET, MRI and ultrasound. Therapeutic applications discussed within the review include radiotherapy, thermal therapy and surgical applications. A number of modalities were not reviewed including optical spectroscopy, optical imaging and planar x-rays. The emergence of image guided interventions and multimodality imaging have placed an increasing demand on the number of specifications on the latest TMMs. Material specification standards are available in some imaging areas such as ultrasound. It is recommended that this should be replicated for other imaging and therapeutic modalities. Materials used within phantoms have been reviewed for a series of imaging and therapeutic applications with the potential to become a testbed for cross-fertilization of materials across modalities. Deformation, texture, multimodality imaging and perfusion are common themes that are currently under development.

Over the past decades, significant improvements have been made in the field of computational human phantoms (CHPs) and their applications in biomedical engineering. Their sophistication has dramatically increased. The very first CHPs were composed of simple geometric volumes, e.g., cylinders and spheres, while current CHPs have a high resolution, cover a substantial range of the patient population, have high anatomical accuracy, are poseable, morphable, and are augmented with various details to perform functionalized computations. Advances in imaging techniques and semi-automated segmentation tools allow fast and personalized development of CHPs. These advances open the door to quickly develop personalized CHPs, inherently including the disease of the patient. Because many of these CHPs are increasingly providing data for regulatory submissions of various medical devices, the validity, anatomical accuracy, and availability to cover the entire patient population is of utmost importance. The article is organized into two main sections: the first section reviews the different modeling techniques used to create CHPs, whereas the second section discusses various applications of CHPs in biomedical engineering. Each topic gives an overview, a brief history, recent developments, and an outlook into the future.

Multiple dose reduction techniques have been introduced for coronary artery calcium (CAC) computed tomography (CT), but few have emerged into clinical practice while an increasing number of patients undergo CAC scanning. We sought to determine to what extend the radiation dose in CAC CT can be safely reduced without a significant impact on cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk stratification. A systematic database-review of articles published from 2002 until February 2018 was performed in Pubmed, WebOfScience, and Embase. Eligible studies reported radiation dose reduction for CAC CT, calcium scores and/or risk stratification for phantom or patient studies. Twenty-eight studies were included, under which 17 patient studies, 10 phantom/ex-vivo studies, and 1 study evaluated both phantom and patients. Dose was reduced with tube voltage reduction and tube current reduction with and without iterative reconstruction (IR), and tin-filter spectral shaping. The different dose reduction techniques resulted in varying final radiation doses and had varying impact on CAC scores and CVD risk stratification. In 78% of the studies the radiation dose was reduced by ≥ 50% ranging from (CTDIvol) 0.6-5.5 mGy, leading to reclassification rates ranging between 3% and 21%, depending on the acquisition technique. Specific dose reduced protocols, including either tube current reduction and IR or spectral shaping with tin filtration, that showed low reclassification rates may potentially be used in CAC scanning and in future population-based screening for CVD risk stratification.