Three dimensional distortion in magnetic resonance images

A method of generating a quantitative model of 3-D distortion in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) using special phantoms is proposed. Preliminary experimental results confirm that MR image distortion is a function of the source voxel position in 3-D-space. The conclusions are drawn from analysis of two MRI data sets: clinical data from a 52-year-old man scanned prior to a stereotaxic procedure and a series of scans of an MRI-compatible phantom. Typical results indicate pincushion distortion relative to the MR system coordinates. The current phantom was inadequate for evaluating the surface topology of the image slices. The general form of the image distortion was consistent between the data sets, although the magnitude was different