Magnetic Resonance Navigation for Targeted Embolization in a Two-Level Bifurcation Phantom

This work combines a particle injection system with our proposed magnetic resonance navigation (MRN) sequence with the intention of validating MRN in a two-bifurcation phantom for endovascular treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). A theoretical physical model used to calculate the most appropriate size of the magnetic drug-eluting bead (MDEB, 200 μ m) aggregates was proposed. The aggregates were injected into the phantom by a dedicated particle injector while a trigger signal was automatically sent to the MRI to start MRN which consists of interleaved tracking and steering sequences. When the main branch of the phantom was parallel to B 0 , the aggregate distribution ratio in the (left–left, left–right, right–left and right–right divisions was obtained with results of 8, 68, 24 and 0% respectively at baseline (no MRN) and increased to 84%, 100, 84 and 92% ( p < 0.001, p = 0.004, p < 0.001, p < 0.001) after implementing our MRN protocol. When the main branch was perpendicular to B 0 , the right-left branch, having the smallest baseline distribution rate of 0%, reached 80% ( p < 0.001) after applying MRN. Moreover, the success rate of MRN was always more than 92% at the 1st bifurcation in the experiments above.