Evaluation of a cardiac flow phantom for absolute myocardial perfusion SPECT measurements

Absolute myocardial perfusion imaging (MPI) can be beneficial in the diagnosis and prognosis of patients with coronary artery disease. However, validation and standardization of perfusion estimates across centers is needed to ensure safe and adequate integration into clinical routine. MPI phantoms can contribute to this clinical need as these models can provide ground truth evaluation of absolute MPI in a simplified, though controlled setup. This work presents verification of phantom design choices, including the justification for using sorbents in mimicking contrast kinetics (i.e., tracer uptake and retention). Moreover, we compare preliminary phantom results obtained with SPECT-MPI with a patient example. Finally, we applied a general two-tissue compartment model to describe the obtained phantom time activity curve data. These evaluation steps support shaping of a suitable verification and validation strategy for the multimodal myocardial perfusion phantom design and realization.