Simultaneous Microwave and MR Imaging for Improved Diagnosis of Breast Abnormalities

项目概要/摘要 这个学术-工业伙伴关系，AIP，提案（PAR-18-009）将开发和评估一个创新的 多模态乳腺成像平台，可同时进行微波和磁共振 成像（sMMRI）。它包含多个主要研究者（多个PI）研究计划和AIP治理 利用达特茅斯、达特茅斯-希区柯克和质量电动力学（QED）的专业知识的结构 在生物医学工程，磁共振成像和微波物理学，计算反演和估计，和乳房 放射学.行业合作伙伴QED将运用其在设计和实施专业 MRI线圈将与达特茅斯的微波成像（MI）电子设备完全集成并兼容， 膛内天线阵到目前为止，我们已经证明了sMMRI的技术可行性，并实现了一个 这是第一个成功进行临床乳腺检查的原型。虽然sMMRI的潜在前景 特别是在获取组织电生理的定量准确的空间图方面， 由于电容率和电导率等物理特性，需要进一步的技术创新和更多的经验， 与sMMRI，无论是技术上和临床上，是需要发展的技术，充分为全面的临床 评价为了推进和优化乳腺sMMRI，同时也增加了我们对其临床的理解， 潜力，我们建议（1）开发MRI（接收）线圈并将其与MI天线阵列集成以优化MRI 和MI图像质量，以及sMMRI临床乳腺检查期间的乳腺覆盖，（2）估计乳腺组织 通过将MRI解剖学先验编码到3D重建过程中， 和（3）使用sMMRI完成体模和临床乳腺成像实验，以评估和优化 建议的技术发展，并在未确诊乳腺癌的妇女中进行临床研究 异常，以检验sMMRI单独提高乳腺MR特异性的假设。如果我们的研究 如果成功，我们将实现一个创新的多模态乳腺成像平台， 参与更大的医疗动力临床研究，其诊断性能在未来。

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT This Academic-Industry Partnership, AIP, proposal (PAR-18-009) will develop and evaluate an innovative multi-modality breast imaging platform that performs simultaneous Microwave and Magnetic Resonance Imaging (sMMRI). It incorporates a multiple-principal-investigator (multi-PI) research plan and AIP governance structure that leverages expertise from Dartmouth, Dartmouth-Hitchcock, and Quality Electrodynamics (QED) in biomedical engineering, MRI and microwave physics, computational inversion and estimation, and breast radiology. Industry partner QED will apply its extensive experience in design and implementation of specialized MRI coils that will be fully integrated and compatible with Dartmouth’s microwave imaging (MI) electronics and in-bore antenna array. To date, we have demonstrated technical feasibility of sMMRI and have realized a prototype that has delivered the first successful clinical breast exams. While potential promise of sMMRI has been suggested, especially in terms of acquiring quantitatively-accurate spatial maps of tissue electrical properties (i.e. permittivity and conductivity), further technical innovations are needed and more experience with sMMRI, both technically and clinically, is required to develop the technology sufficiently for a full clinical evaluation. To advance and optimize sMMRI of the breast while also increasing our understanding of its clinical potential, we propose to (1) develop and integrate MRI (receive) coils with MI antenna arrays to optimize MRI and MI image quality, and breast coverage during an sMMRI clinical breast exam, (2) estimate breast tissue electrical properties from sMMRI data by encoding MRI anatomical priors into the 3D reconstruction process, and (3) complete phantom and clinical breast imaging experiments with sMMRI to evaluate and optimize the proposed technical developments, and to conduct a clinical study in women with undiagnosed breast abnormalities to test the hypothesis that sMMRI improves the specificity of breast MR alone. If the studies we propose are successful, we will have realized an innovative multi-modality breast imaging platform that is ready for involvement in larger statistically-powered clinical studies of its diagnostic performance in the future.