47--TESLA MRI/MRS CONSOLE UPGRADE

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

A console upgrade is requested for a 30-cm, 4.7-T MRI/MRS animal research system. Over the ten years since it was installed, only one system component has been upgraded (the gradients were upgraded in fall 1992). The obsolete minicomputer (24-bit, non-UNIX, non-C or -FORTRAN programmable), radiofrequency electronics, and pulse programmer significantly limit its experimental capability and greatly complicate both the development/implementation of new experiments and the on-line analysis of data or transfer of data for off-line analysis. Thus, the current state of the equipment limits both the rate of progress on current projects and the development of future projects. The need to upgrade out current console became critical this past summer when its reliability abruptly degraded to an unacceptable level (it went from an average of 1 day of down time a month over the previous 10 year period to an average of 10 days a month starting in June). This has further decreased the productivity of investigators who depend on this system to conduct their NIH-funded research and discouraged others from beginning new projects. The requested upgrade will make this a reliable, fully functional state-of-the art system. A group of five major users will require at least 90 percent of the total usage of the upgraded system. The projects they will conduct include the following: ascertain the cellular mechanisms regulating the blinding complications associated with diabetic retinopathy of prematurity; elucidate the pathophysiology of pediatric epileptogenesis; evaluate new approaches to predict tumor therapeutic response; monitor cerebral neurochemistry in response to cocaine in vivo; and design optimized data collection and reconstruction strategies for ultimate application to clinical magnetic resonance angiography. All of these animal studies are directly related to ongoing clinical studies in humans and/or parallel basic studies using complimentary methods. Many of the techniques developed on this animal research system will be translated directly to clinical studies. Some of the projects can only be initiated with the upgrade in place, and the remaining projects will benefit enormously form the proposed upgrade.