What
A perfusion phantom that simulates myocardial first-pass perfusion, allowing comparisons between different magnetic resonance techniques and validation of the results against a true gold standard.
Why
Myocardial ischemia, or coronary artery disease is one of the leading causes of death worldwide.
Quantitative cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) perfusion imaging is steadily being introduced into clinical routine for the assessment of coronary artery disease. Conventional CMR perfusion acquisition requires the injection of a bolus of contrast agent in the patient to visualise myocardial blood flow. Each first-pass perfusion image is then visually assessed by a skilled reader. However, the lack of standardization of the analysis method has been generally recognised as a common obstacle for the absolute quantification of myocardial blood flow.
Benefits
The proposed technology allows to overcome the afore-mentioned problems, by providing a gold standard to calibrate a medical scanner to perform CMR.
The technology allows to fully automate the calibration process for CMR. The resulting calibrated perfusion quantification has a diagnostic accuracy of at least 80% in comparison with established clinical reference standards for the diagnosis of coronary artery disease.
Opportunity
The technology is protected by a European patent (validated in GB, FR, DE and CH), a US patent and a Canadian patent, and is available for licensing. The technology has also been adopted as quality assurance protocol for a European multi-centre study (EudraCT Number: 2019-002615-25). Suitable commercial partners are sought for commercialisation.
The Solution
The technology is based on a phantom organ to simulate myocardial first-pass perfusion in a scanner and a corresponding software to automate the CMR calibration process using the phantom organ
Figure 1: a schematic representation of a phantom organ designed for calibrating a medical scanner to perform CMR.
Figure 2:
Example of consecutive dynamics obtained by perfusion MRI from the perfusion phantom.
A. Baseline image, before contrast injection. B. Early image, with signal intensity (SI) increase in the vena cava (VC) and pulmonary artery (PA).
C. SI increase in the PA, pulmonary vein (PV) and aorta (AO). D. SI increase in the AO, right myocardial compartment (perfusion rate 10 mL/g/min) and initial signal increase in the left myocardial compartment (5 mL/g/min).
IP Status
The technology is protected by:
Further Information
Keywords:
Medical device
Medical imaging
MRI
CT
Phantom device
Modelling physiological / pathological parameters
Cardiac MR
Perfusion imaging
Quantitative perfusion measurements
Teaching / training aid
QC / QA