Stretchable Coils for Low-Field, Portable MRI

用于低场便携式 MRI 的可拉伸线圈

• 批准号: 10724525
• 负责人: Clarissa Zimmerman Cooley
• 金额: $ 25.05万
• 依托单位: MASSACHUSETTS GENERAL HOSPITAL
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-08-15 至 2025-07-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10724525
• 关键词: Adoption; Adult; Algorithms; Brain; Brain imaging; Clinical; Contrast Media; Critical Care; Development; Diameter; Disadvantaged; Frequencies; Goals; Image; Individual; Inferior; Infrastructure; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Measurement; Methods; Minor; Monitor; Neonatal; Noise; Output; Pathology; Patient Care; Patients; Planet Earth; Point-of-Care Systems; RF coil; Resolution; Resource-limited setting; Risk Reduction; Role; Safety; Sampling; Scanning; Shapes; Signal Transduction; Stretching; System; Technology; Temperature; Time; Validation; clinical care; cost; design; design and construction; flexibility; high risk; improved; interest; magnetic field; neonate; novel; operation; patient population; point of care; portability; programs; scale up; transmission process; trend; vector; voltage; volunteer

Project Summary/Abstract The widespread availability of portable Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scanners that can be transported to the bedside could have a tremendous impact for critical care and general clinical care in low- resource settings. To achieve truly portable, point-of-care operation, a low magnetic field strength (<0.1 T) is considered a prerequisite for both size requirements and safety considerations. However, the main limitation of low-field MRI is the associated low signal-to-noise (SNR) ratio. The low SNR of these systems results in significantly inferior image quality compared to conventional MRI. While high SNR is not always necessary to detect pathology, there may be a high risk of missed findings and misdiagnosis. This is a significant issue that currently defrays the use of low-field MRI and could ultimately limit the widescale adoption and scale-up of portable accessible MRI technology. One non-invasive method for improving the sensitivity of the MR measurement, is to maximize the receiver coil sensitivity. Our proposal attempts to achieve this with stretchable receiver caps for brain imaging. The stretchable coils will adapt to each subject to provide the highest filling factor for the coil and attempt to achieve body-noise dominance. Instead of using a lossy stretchable conductor, we will use flexible, strategically draped litz wire on a stretchable cap to construct the single channel receiver coil. The inductance of the coil will change with each subject due to the change-able diameter and shape. Therefore, we will implement an external tuning and matching box for “autotuning” the coil. The autotuning system will make use of a compact PC-controlled vector network analyzer (VNA) to monitor the S-parameters of the coil and output appropriate voltages to voltage-controlled capacitors (varactor diodes) for adjustable tuning/matching. Our end goal is to create the optimal brain imaging coil for each individual subject (through adapting the shape and tuning/matching) with the ultimate goal of improving portable MRI image quality and clinical utility.

项目摘要/摘要 便携式磁共振成像（MRI）扫描仪的宽度可用性可以是 运输到床边可能会对低 - 重症监护和一般临床护理产生巨大影响 资源设置。为了实现真正的便携式，护理点操作，低磁场强度（<0.1 t）为 被认为是尺寸要求和安全考虑因素的先决条件。但是，主要限制 低场MRI是相关的低信噪比（SNR）。这些系统的低SNR导致 与常规MRI相比，图像质量显着较低。虽然高SNR并不总是需要 检测病理学，可能会有很高的发现和诊断误诊的风险。这是一个重要的问题 目前会缩减使用低场MRI的使用，并最终可能限制采用和扩大规模 便携式可访问的MRI技术。 提高MR测量灵敏度的一种非侵入性方法是最大化接收器 线圈灵敏度。我们的建议试图使用可伸缩的接收器盖来实现这一目标，以用于大脑成像。这 可伸缩的线圈将适应每个主题，以提供线圈的最高填充因子并尝试实现 身体噪声优势。我们将使用灵活的，策略性的悬垂性，而不是使用可损耗的可拉伸导体 LITZ电线在可拉伸盖上以构建单个通道接收器线圈。线圈的电感将 由于可变直径和形状，每个受试者都会改变每个受试者。因此，我们将实施 用于“自动调整”线圈的外部调整和匹配框。自动调整系统将使用紧凑 PC控制的矢量网络分析仪（VNA）监视线圈的S-参数并适当 电压控制电容器（变量二极管）的电压可调节/匹配。我们的最终目标是 为每个受试者创建最佳的脑成像线圈（通过适应形状和 调整/匹配）的最终目标是改善便携式MRI图像质量和临床实用程序。