A moving heart phantom for dual gated cardiac PET/CT studies

Atherosclerosis of coronary arterials is a very common disease in human population. Early diagnostics of arterial plaques is very important for certain risk patients. Heart is a difficult organ to image because of its movement that is caused by two independent sources: heart beat and respiratory cycle. The aim of this study was to construct a moving heart phantom with respiratory and cardiac movements. The phantom includes the left ventricular chamber, heart muscle and coronary arterials. In addition there was a need to mimic arterial plagues in the coronary arterials.