229 - Evaluation of image quality in 1.5 tesla MRI scanner in Nepal.

Image quality is the clarity of structures in an image and is essential for providing an accurate diagnosis. We aim to evaluate the image quality in the 1.5 Tesla MRI Scanner. Geometric distortion, signal-to-noise ratio, percentage intensity uniformity and ghosting are evaluated. A 40 cm diameter cylindrical electroclinical correlation (ECC) performance phantom was scanned in T2W spin-echo pulse sequence at the coronal plane by using 32 phased-array coils in a 1.5 Tesla Philips Achieva MRI imager, Department of Radiology & Imaging, National Academy of Medical Sciences (NAMS), Kathmandu in June 2019. Four parameters, namely Geometric distortion (GD), Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR), percentage intensity uniformity (PIU) and ghosting-to-signal ratio (GSR) were measured in RadiAnt DICOM viewer. Data were analyzed using SPSS Statistics software, version 27.0. The calculated values of these parameters were compared with standard references. The range of GD was 0 - 3.9 mm. SNR was 113.96 for small ROI and 99.71 for large ROI. The PIU was 97.73% and 72.33% for small ROI and large ROI respectively. The GSR was 0.0011 for small ROI and 0.0039 for large ROI respectively. The image quality assurance was over the limit for GD, PIU (large ROI). The SNR and GSR were adequate. Regular QA tests are required to obtain optimal image quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]