MICA: Ultra-High Field MRI: Advancing Clinical Neuroscientific Research in Experimental Medicine

MICA：超高场 MRI：推进实验医学的临床神经科学研究

• 批准号: MR/M008932/1
• 负责人: Richard Wise
• 金额: $ 853.83万
• 依托单位: CARDIFF UNIVERSITY
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2015 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=MR%2FM008932%2F1
• 关键词: MICA; Ultra; Field; MRI; Advancing

Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) is a medical imaging technique that allows us to see detailed structure within the body and to measure the body's chemical environment. It has gained widespread use in hospitals and in medical research as a way of examining the whole body but it is particularly suited to visualizing brain structure and function. No other imaging technique gives as much information about the brain as MRI.Many diseases affecting the brain are poorly understood; with their root cause unknown, good treatments often remain elusive. We propose to install a new 7 Tesla MRI system, requested in this application from the MRC, within the newly rebuilt and expanded Cardiff University Brain Research Imaging Centre (CUBRIC). This advanced MRI system would sit in alongside other brain imaging systems tailored to imaging microscopic tissue structure and the brain's electrical activity, making the combination of imaging equipment within the new CUBRIC unique in Europe. CUBRIC will also have a clinic in which new treatments can be tested and the way that the brain responds to these treatments will be measured using the brain scanners. Using the 7T MRI system we will investigate the causes and treatments of brain conditions including psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia, neurodegenerative conditions such as dementia, Parkinson's disease and Huntington's disease, neuroinflammatory conditions such as multiple sclerosis and conditions that can cause damage to the brain such as hypertension (high blood pressure). To understand better these conditions we will also need to study the healthy brain in detail across different age groups from young to old. A particular strength of Cardiff's proposed research will be in linking the discovery of genetic factors associated with brain disease to detailed assessments of brain structure and function made with the 7T MRI system. This will give us a clearer picture of underlying disease mechanisms that will in turn suggest new treatments that can be tried. 7T MRI will also give us sensitive ways of measuring whether a new treatment is working and so help us speed up the development of drugs and interventions to promote the brains own repair. The main component of an MRI machine is the superconducting magnet within which the patient lies. From the beginnings of MRI there has been a trend towards using more powerful magnets that generate a stronger magnetic field (measured in Tesla, or T). Hospital MRI systems typically use 1.5T magnets while 3T is most common for research into the human brain. There are currently only two MRI systems in the UK that use 7T magnets, one at the University of Nottingham and the other at the University of Oxford. Cardiff's proposal for 7T MRI aims to use the benefits of this higher field strength to develop treatments and promote early and more refined diagnosis in patients. Higher magnetic field strengths in MRI bring strong benefits to brain research including:1. increased signal such that we can speed up some imaging methods,2. higher resolution images allowing us to see finer detail within the brain,3. more sensitivity to detect naturally occurring chemicals in the brain that may be imbalanced when the brain malfunctions,4. a much enhanced ability to detect changes in brain activity using a technique known as functional MRI5. the ability to better measure blood flow to brain tissue6. new forms of image contrast that give us previously unseen information about microscopic structure within the brain.Together these technical advances in the MRI at 7T will give us a more complete window on to human brain structure and function.The installation of 7T MRI in Cardiff would expand the UK's expertise in advanced neuroimaging. Cardiff would work closely with other UK centres in a new network known as UK7T to maximize the benefit to healthcare and UK industry of these investments in brain imaging technology.

磁共振成像（MRI）是一种医学成像技术，可以让我们看到体内的详细结构并测量体内的化学环境。它作为一种检查全身的方法在医院和医学研究中得到了广泛的应用，但它特别适合可视化大脑结构和功能。没有其他成像技术能够像 MRI 那样提供如此多的有关大脑的信息。许多影响大脑的疾病人们知之甚少；由于其根本原因未知，良好的治疗方法往往难以捉摸。我们建议在新重建和扩建的卡迪夫大学脑研究成像中心 (CUBRIC) 内安装 MRC 申请中要求的新 7 特斯拉 MRI 系统。这种先进的 MRI 系统将与其他专门用于对显微组织结构和大脑电活动进行成像的脑成像系统一起使用，使得新 CUBRIC 内的成像设备组合在欧洲独一无二。 CUBRIC 还将设立一个诊所，可以测试新的治疗方法，并使用脑部扫描仪测量大脑对这些治疗方法的反应方式。使用 7T MRI 系统，我们将研究大脑疾病的原因和治疗方法，包括精神分裂症等精神疾病、痴呆症、帕金森病和亨廷顿病等神经退行性疾病、多发性硬化症等神经炎症性疾病以及高血压等可能对大脑造成损害的疾病。为了更好地了解这些条件，我们还需要详细研究从年轻到年长的不同年龄段的健康大脑。卡迪夫提出的研究的一个特殊优势是将与脑部疾病相关的遗传因素的发现与 7T MRI 系统对大脑结构和功能的详细评估联系起来。这将使我们更清楚地了解潜在的疾病机制，进而提出可以尝试的新疗法。 7T MRI 还将为我们提供灵敏的方法来测量新疗法是否有效，从而帮助我们加快药物和干预措施的开发，以促进大脑自身的修复。 MRI 机器的主要部件是患者躺在其中的超导磁体。从 MRI 诞生之初，就出现了使用更强大的磁铁来产生更强磁场（以特斯拉或 T 为单位测量）的趋势。医院 MRI 系统通常使用 1.5T 磁铁，而 3T 最常用于人脑研究。目前英国只有两套 MRI 系统使用 7T 磁铁，一套位于诺丁汉大学，另一套位于牛津大学。卡迪夫提出的 7T MRI 提案旨在利用这种更高场强的优势来开发治疗方法并促进患者的早期和更精细的诊断。 MRI 中更高的磁场强度给大脑研究带来了巨大的好处，包括：1。增加信号，以便我们可以加快某些成像方法的速度，2。更高分辨率的图像使我们能够看到大脑内更精细的细节，3。更敏感地检测大脑中自然产生的化学物质，当大脑出现故障时，这些化学物质可能会失衡，4。使用功能性 MRI5 技术检测大脑活动变化的能力大大增强。更好地测量流向脑组织的血流的能力6。新形式的图像对比为我们提供了有关大脑内部微观结构的前所未见的信息。7T MRI 的这些技术进步将为我们提供了解人类大脑结构和功能的更完整的窗口。在卡迪夫安装 7T MRI 将扩大英国在先进神经影像方面的专业知识。卡迪夫将与英国其他中心在一个名为 UK7T 的新网络中密切合作，以最大限度地提高脑成像技术投资给医疗保健和英国工业带来的利益。

项目成果

Improved estimates of the g-ratio by modelling its contribution to complex signal evolution in GRE data

通过对 GRE 数据中复杂信号演化的贡献进行建模，改进了 g 比的估计

• 发表时间: 2019
• 作者: Drakesmith M

Inter-site repeatability of motor-visual task fMRI responses at 7 Tesla.

7 特斯拉时运动视觉任务 fMRI 响应的站点间可重复性。

• 发表时间: 2019
• 作者: []

Most Small Cerebral Cortical Veins Demonstrate Significant Flow Pulsatility: A Human Phase Contrast MRI Study at 7T

• DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2020.00415
• 发表时间: 2020-05-05
• 期刊: FRONTIERS IN NEUROSCIENCE
• 影响因子: 4.3
• 作者: Driver, Ian D.;Traat, Maarika;Wise, Richard G.
• 通讯作者: Wise, Richard G.

The UK7T Network's Harmonized Neuroimaging Protocols.

UK7T 网络的协调神经影像协议。

• 发表时间: 2019
• 作者: Clarke WT

Inter-site, inter-subject and inter-session variability of B1+ and B0 in the human brain at 7 Tesla

7 特斯拉时人脑中 B1 和 B0 的位点间、受试者间和会话间变异性

• 发表时间: 2019
• 作者: Clarke WT