Scanning Protocol

Gold Standard Phantom's recommendation

Gold Standard Phantoms recommends the following scanner parameters when using the Veriflux phantom for performing fMRI stability analysis.

Acquisition type	EPI
Magnetic Field Strength	3T
Head coil	Coil used for fMRI. Recommendation: 32 or 64-elements coil.
Scan plane	As per clinical protocol, either parallel to AC-PC line or plain axial / transverse.
Field of view	200mm
Slices	As many as possible within a TR = 2000ms, typically 32.
Slice thickness	4mm + 1mm gap
TR	2000ms
TE	30ms
Flip angle	90 degrees
Parallel imaging factor	0 / Off
Matrix	64x64
Number of volumes	200
Scan time	6min 40sec
Dummy scans*	Min 3
Reconstruction	Sum-of-square

*As part of the protocol, you can set up this parameter, which means that the first three scans are going to be acquired but not saved. This brings the magnetization into a steady-state.

Possible alternative protocols

The following set of parameters have been successfully used with Veriflux

Acquisition type	EPI
Scanner Magnetic Field Strength	3T
Head coil	32 coil
Scan plane	Axial
Field of view	200mm
Slices	16
Slice thickness	4mm + 1mm gap
TR	1000ms
TE	30ms
Flip angle	90 degrees
Parallel imaging factor	0 / Off
Matrix	64x64x16
Number of volumes	400
Scan time	6 min 40s
Dummy Scans	Min 3
Reconstruction	Sum-of-square

FBIRN protocol parameters

The following set of parameters are compliant with the FBIRN protocol. The use of 1.5T scanners is supported, but not recommended.

Acquisition type	EPI or Spiral GRE
Scanner Magnetic Field Strength	1.5T	3T	7T
Head coil	Coil used for fMRI. Recommendation: 32 or 64-elements coil.
Scan plane	Axial
Field of view	220mm
Number of Slices	28	32	38
Slice thickness	4mm + 1mm gap
TR	2000ms
TE	40ms	30ms	25ms
Flip angle	90 degrees
Bandwidth	+-100kHz
Parallel imaging factor	0 / Off
Matrix	64x64
Number of volumes	200
Scan time	6min 40sec
Dummy Scans	Min 3
Reconstruction	Sum-of-square