An actuated phantom for developing and studying MRI-guided interventions in dynamic environments

During early development stages of novel medical technologies the use of cost-effective, reusable and adaptable dynamic models can be an effective precursor to animal studies. This paper describes and demonstrates a novel, MR compatible, actuated phantom which can mimic the global motion of the left ventricular corridor. This prototype has five actuated DoF and is controlled to replicate specific in vivo motion according to pre-collected MR images. Studies conducted demonstrate 21.1% open-loop error in replicating 1.57 mm motions. MR studies in a 1.5T clinical scanner manifested that the system is MR compatible. SNR was measured to be 90.9 ± 15.4 with the motors in motion and 89.4 ± 2.6 with the motors idle. The purpose of this device is to be used as a phantom for the development and validation of image-guided and robot-assisted intracardiac surgeries in the beating heart.