Anthropomorphic Cardio CT Phantom

A calibration standard for cardiac CT. Investigate the influence of scan parameters on the detectability of coronary artery calcifications. Achieve reproducible scoring results.

In a modular construction principle the phantom is made up of two parts: the anthropomorphic thorax phantom body, QRM-Thorax, and the cardiac calcification insert QRM-CCI.
QRM-Thorax comprises artificial lung lopes, a spine insert, and shell of soft tissue equivalent material. The plastics used in this antropomorphic phantom mimic human tissues in the thorax with respect to density and attenuation characteristics.
The cylindrical cardiac calcification insert, QRM-CCI, contains nine cylindrical calcifi-cations in variing size and hydroxyapatite (HA) density (see table 1), and two larger calibration inserts. One of them is made of water equivalent material, CTWater, the other one contains hydroxyapatite in addition. They are embedded in a tissue-equivalent solid of typically 35 HU (+/- 5 HU).
In order to obtain absolute values for the calcium mass, a calibration measurement with the central calibration insert of known hydroxyapatite (HA) density of 200 mg HA/cm³ can be carried out. The water equivalent insert serves as a further calibration standard. In practice the CT number of water should always be checked under the given modalities. If its measured HU value deviates from zero, the known deviation can be taken into account in the applied scoring method.
The QRM-Thorax is also available with drilled holes according to CTDI-specifications for dosimetry purpose.