• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.89-93
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• 2019

Purpose: This study aims to develop new markers based on silicone rubber and urethane rubber to enhance visibility in low magnetic field magnetic resonance (MR) imaging. Methods: Four types of markers were fabricated using two different base materials. Two of the markers were composed of two different types of silicone rubber: DragonSkin™ 10 MEDIUM and BodyDouble™ SILK. The other two markers were composed of types of urethane rubber: PMC™ 780 DRY and VytaFlex™ 20. Silicone oil (KF-96 1000cs) was added to the fabricated markers. The allocated amount of oil was 20% of the weight (wt%) of each respective marker. The MR images of the markers, with and without the silicone oil, were acquired using MRIdian with a low magnetic field of 0.35 T. The signal intensities of each MR image for the markers were analyzed using ImageJ software and the visibility for each was compared. Results: The highest signal intensity was observed in VytaFlex™ 20 (279.67±3.57). Large differences in the signal intensities (e.g., 627% in relative difference between BodyDouble™ SILK and VytaFlex™ 20) among the markers were observed. However, the maximum difference between the signal intensities of the markers with the silicone oil showed only a 62% relative difference between PMC™ 780 DRY and DragonSkin™ 10 MEDIUM. An increase in the signal intensity of the markers with the silicone oil was observed in all markers. Conclusions: New markers were successfully fabricated. Among the markers, DragonSkin™ 10 MEDIUM with silicone oil showed the highest MR signal intensity.