FUNSTAR
Functional Stability Reference
fBIRN-compliant stability phantom for fMRI quality assurance
Gold Standard Phantoms is pleased to offer a spherical gel stability phantom that meets the characteristics established by the fBIRN committee. Designed to fit within modern multi-channel MRI head coils, the FUNSTAR uses a proprietary water-based, synthetic gel inside a HDPE spherical shell.
Why FUNSTAR?
Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) pushes the MRI scanner's hardware to the limits of its performance, whilst demanding exceptional stability in order to detect small changes in blood oxygenation levels. For over 15 years MRI system stability for fMRI has been monitored using the fBIRN fMRI quality assurance protocol, which specifies a phantom, imaging protocol and analysis to quantify performance.
Standardised Properties
Unlike agar (a natural product derived from seaweed), our synthetic polymer-based gel has standardised relaxation times controlled by paramagnetic salts, eliminating batch-to-batch variation.
Bubble-Free Gel
Processed at room temperature (unlike the high temperature processing required by agar/agarose), resulting in a practically bubble-free phantom.
Mechanical Stability
The gel has elasticity, making it more mechanically stable than fragile agar, which is also a growth medium for bacteria.
Veriflux Integration
Can be used in conjunction with Veriflux SaaS, providing easy-to-use, automated fBIRN stability analysis for dedicated management of quality assurance tests.
Example EPI Volume
Reference
Report on a multicenter fMRI quality assurance protocol. Friedman and Glover. JMRI p827-839, Vol 23, Issue 6, 2006.
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