Longitudinal stability of gel T1 MRI Phantoms for quality assurance of T1 mapping

Background Quantification of interstitial (diffuse) myocardial fibrosis by T1 mapping may prove useful in a range of conditions. Both native T1 maps and extracellular volume fraction (ECV) are being increasingly used clinically and have been shown to be sensitive to a wide range of conditions and associate with worse prognosis. However, quality control by T1 phantoms is essential [1,2] and their long-term stability has not been demonstrated. Phantoms with long term stability could assure the stability of methods applied to patients against scanner alternations and across multiple centers. We sought to investigate the long-term stability of phantoms prepared to model T1 and T2 of blood and myocardium over a period of 52 weeks.