The spinal cord exists in an unfavorable magnetic field environment; the lungs produce strong B0 field inhomogeneities that vary over time. We have designed and built a phantom that simulates these temporal field distortions to aid in the development of spinal cord imaging methods. The phantom consists of an acrylic tank, two lung simulants, a spinal cord and canal phantom, and a microcontroller-governed air pump. The respiratory waveform is customizable. This phantom accurately reproduced the ~20Hz respiratory-induced field shifts observed in vivo at the C3 vertebral level at 7T, and, being fully synthetic, is stable and replicable.
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