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.

项目概要/摘要 便携式磁共振成像 (MRI) 扫描仪的广泛使用可以 运送到床边可能会对低收入人群的重症监护和一般临床护理产生巨大影响 为了实现真正的便携式、现场护理操作，需要低磁场强度（<0.1 T）。 考虑到尺寸要求和安全考虑的先决条件，但主要限制是。 低场 MRI 与这些系统的低信噪比 (SNR) 相关。 与传统 MRI 相比，图像质量明显较差，但并不总是需要高信噪比。 检测病理，可能存在很高的漏检和误诊风险。 目前花费了低场 MRI 的使用费用，并最终可能限制其广泛采用和扩大规模 便携式 MRI 技术。 一种提高 MR 测量灵敏度的非侵入性方法是最大化接收器 我们的建议试图通过用于大脑成像的可拉伸接收器盖来实现这一点。 可拉伸线圈将适应每个主题，为线圈提供最高的填充系数，并尝试实现 我们将使用灵活的、策略性的覆盖导体，而不是使用有损耗的可拉伸导体。 可拉伸帽上的利兹线构造单通道接收器线圈 线圈的电感将。 由于直径和形状可变，因此我们将实施一个。 用于“自动调谐”线圈的外部调谐和匹配盒 自动调谐系统将利用紧凑型。 PC 控制的矢量网络分析仪 (VNA)，用于监控线圈的 S 参数并输出适当的值 我们的最终目标是压控电容器（变容二极管）的电压进行可调调整/匹配。 为每个受试者创建最佳的大脑成像线圈（通过调整形状和 调整/匹配），最终目标是提高便携式 MRI 图像质量和临床实用性。