An inexpensive phantom for evaluating gated blood pool data acquisition/processing systems at heart rates above 400/min

Equilibrium gated blood pool imaging of the heart is a common diagnostic procedure for visualizing cardiac function in human subjects. Recently, this procedure has been modified to evaluate cardiac function in mice. However, the high heart rates encountered in these animals (often greater than 400 beats/min) can confound R-wave trigger devices, acquisition systems and image processing software containing default conditions tailored specifically to the lower heart rates of human subjects. In order to determine whether data acquisition and processing components of a commercial or self-generated gated blood pool imaging procedure are performing properly, input of known timing and imaging signals that mimic those generated during high heart rate gated blood pool imaging is required. Here, the authors describe an inexpensive phantom that is suitable for initial evaluation of an unknown system or for ongoing QC of a previously verified system.