DUAL-TUNED PROBE FOR MRI/MRS OF THE HUMAN BRAIN

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In Phase I, a novel quadrature, dual-tuned (31P-1H) probe with nearly identical field-of-view, ideal for 1H decoupled 31P spectroscopy of the entire adult brain will be developed at 1.5T. Phantom measurements and volunteer evaluations will be performed to evaluate S/N, uniformity, coverage, claustraphobia, etc. Phase II will involve optimizing the coil design, followed by extensive phantom and volunteer evaluations to achieve improved spectral quality over the brain. This design will be extended to 3.0 and 4.0T field strengths, validated and verified by research spectroscopists. Potential research and clinical uses include the broad-based functional, structural and biochemical examinations of patients with cancer, AIDS, neuropsychiatric diseases such as schizophrenia, neurogenerative diseases such as alzheimers, stroke and epilepsy etc. All this will translate into improved image quality and spectroscopic representation of the x-nucleus over the entire brain in one patient setting, which will aid in the clinical diagnosis. This we believe will be of a substantial benefit of mankind. PROPOSED COMMERCIAL APPLICATION: Research and clinical applications include non-ionizing brain imaging when compared to ionizing radiation techniques, such as PET, SPECT, etc. This project will provide a significant improvement to the NMR RF coil technology including sequence and technique optimizations. If clinical value is demonstrated, NMR spectroscopy systems based on this technology will find widespread applications in the areas of cancer, AIDS, neuropsychiatric and neurodegenerative disease of the human brain, stroke and epilepsy etc.