SBIR Phase I: Incorporating High Dielectric Constant Materials into clinical imaging: A Novel Approach for Accelerating 1.5T MRI

这个小企业创新研究（SBIR）第一阶段项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力将针对临床磁共振成像（MRI）扫描仪，因为磁共振成像有限，可以接触到更多的患者。提高空间分辨率和缩短扫描时间是研究从单细胞到人类的广泛生物系统的迫切需要。较长的扫描时间降低了放射科流程的效率，并增加了诊所和患者的总体成本。在研究界，高分辨率MRI是了解代谢活动的有力工具。通过将特殊材料引入临床MRI扫描仪中，该项目将开创一种完全不同的解决方案，以解决扫描时间长这一基本问题，这一问题最常用于解决信号强度与患者安全之间的挑战，最终限制了研究和临床测试的吞吐量。在SBIR项目下开发的拟议材料将对动物和人类健康研究产生直接影响，神经科学家正在使用MRI技术监测大脑活动和认知。拟议的SBIR一期项目将推动核磁共振成像新方法的发展，核磁共振成像是放射学不可或缺的临床成像方式，也是生命科学最强大的研究工具之一。然而，它具有固有的低信噪比，限制了成像分辨率和扫描速度。开发工作将集中在将高介电常数介电材料结合到MRI扫描仪中，以将信噪比提高40%以上，从而将扫描时间缩短一半。介质材料将放置在患者附近，通过更强的电磁耦合来增强MRI信号。将合成介电常数在4000 - 6000之间的材料，并将其纳入临床1.5特斯拉MRI扫描仪中。在制造最终器件之前，将对具有优化介电性能的氧化物材料进行合成和表征。该项目将采用集成系统方法，包括电磁仿真、陶瓷加工和测试。磁场强度将通过在MRI扫描仪中模拟一系列介电材料来优化，并最终在临床扫描仪中进行幻影测试。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase 1 project will target clinical Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scanners where there is limited MRI access to a larger patient population. Enhanced spatial resolution and reduced scan time are in urgent demand for investigating a comprehensive range of biological systems from single cells to humans. Long scan times reduce the efficiency of radiology department processes and increase the overall cost to clinics and patients. In the research community, high-resolution MRI is a powerful tool for understanding metabolic activity. This project will pioneer an entirely different solution to the fundamental problem of long scan times by introducing special materials into the clinical MRI scanners most commonly used to address the challenge of signal strength versus patient safety, which ultimately limits the throughput for research studies and clinical tests. The proposed materials developed under this SBIR program will have an immediate impact on animal and human health studies where neuroscientists are using MRI techniques to monitor brain activity and cognition. The proposed SBIR Phase 1 project will advance the development of a new approach to MRI, an indispensable clinical imaging modality for radiology and one of the most powerful research instruments for life science. However, it has an inherently low signal-to-noise ratio, limiting both imaging resolution and scan speed. Development efforts will focus on incorporation of high permittivity dielectric materials into MRI scanners to increase the signal-to-noise ratio by over 40%, thereby cutting the scan time by half. The dielectric materials would be placed near the patient to increase the MRI signal through stronger electromagnetic coupling. Materials with dielectric constant values between 4,000 and 6,000 will be synthesized and incorporated into clinical 1.5 Tesla MRI scanners. Oxide materials with the optimized dielectric properties will be synthesized and characterized before fabricating the final device. The project will pursue an integrated systems approach including electromagnetic simulation, ceramic processing and testing. The magnetic field strengths will be optimized by simulating a range of dielectric materials in the MRI scanner and ultimately tested in clinical scanners with a phantom.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.