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PROJECT SUMMARY/ ABSTRACT
The overall objective of TRD4 is to develop innovative engineering solutions required to support the other
TRDs and various collaborative and service projects in this P41 Center. One of the most important issues that
needs to be addressed, particularly while developing new ultra-high field MR technologies, is to ensure the
overall MR related safety of the technology. We demonstrated the feasibility of accurately predicting temperature
increase in anesthetized animals due to power deposition from antenna arrays at 10.5 T and will expand on this
work and explore true safety limits of transmit arrays by investigating in-vivo absolute temperature change. We
also propose a novel approach to monitor surface temperatures with IR cameras integrated into coil housings.
Another significant technological barrier for the larger MR community is how to address the safety issues
and imaging artifacts associated with metallic implants and deep brain stimulator leads. The use of MRI for
measuring tissue structure and function in the presence of implanted leads is also critically important for research
aimed at understanding the mechanisms and evaluating the impact of neuromodulation. Yet, most individuals
with such metallic implants cannot undergo MR imaging because of severe, RF-induced image artifacts and
tissue heating. Therefore, novel MRI strategies that minimize a priori the occurrence of artifacts and tissue
heating are desperately needed. We propose to develop parallel RF transmission strategies expanding on the
previous methods that were developed to predict and/or reduce heating around implants.
The increased SNR available at UHF (7 T and 10.5 T), in combination with newly developed optimized RF
coil designs, offers the potential of achieving unprecedented high-resolution images of the brain. However, as
image resolution increases, the problem of head motion during acquisition causing artifacts and blurring
becomes more substantial. To address this problem, improved motion detection and correction approaches are
necessary. We propose to develop novel sensor hardware and to translate existing external software
developments for improved motion detection and correction. The data provided by these sensors can also be
used for other purposes such as safety monitoring.
Finally, we plan to expand on our extensive UHF technology expertise and propose optimized transmit arrays
and receive array combinations for head and body that combine proton and multinuclear imaging applications.
Using ultrahigh dielectric constant materials (uHDC) in conjunction with multinuclear coils has been shown to
potentially decrease RF power requirements while simultaneously increasing SNR and reducing SAR. The
optimal permittivity is dependent on the resonant frequency of interest, which depends on the field strength and
nucleus under investigation. The increase in the 10.5T operating frequencies for X-nuclei is expected to allow
use of lower loss dielectrics with the potential of additional gains in SNR beyond the supralinear SNR increase
due to the field strength.
Status | Finished |
---|---|
Effective start/end date | 1/1/19 → 1/31/24 |
Funding
- National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering: $297,029.00
- National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering: $293,949.00
- National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering: $276,028.00
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Projects
- 1 Active
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Technology to Realize the Full Potential of UHF MRI
Metzger, G., Adriany, G., Akcakaya, M., Zimmermann, J. & Ugurbil, K.
National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering
2/1/19 → 1/31/25
Project: Research project