Design and construction of a tissue-mimicking phantom to validate electrical properties mapping techniques based on magnetic resonance

Knowledge of the spatial distribution of electrical properties (EP) of human tissues, namely electric conductivity (s) and permittivity (e), could be used to detect pathologic tissue (e.g., cancer), as well as to accurately estimate radiofrequency (RF) safety limits for ultra-high field (UHF) magnetic resonance (MR) imaging. Various techniques have been proposed for non-invasive mapping of tissue EP in the radiofrequency range based on MR measurements. The aim of this work is to design and build a two-compartment MR phantom for validation of EP mapping techniques. We chose 300 MHz as the target operating frequency because RF-based EP mapping techniques are more promising at UHF.