Development of A Prepolarized MRI Extremity Scanner

预极化 MRI 肢体扫描仪的开发

• 批准号: 6365048
• 负责人: ALBERT MACOVSKI
• 金额: $ 34.11万
• 依托单位: STANFORD UNIVERSITY
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2001
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2001-09-12 至 2005-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/6365048
• 关键词: articular cartilage; biomedical equipment development; clinical research; clinical trials; diagnosis design /evaluation; human subject; human therapy evaluation; joint disorder; knee; magnetic resonance imaging; musculoskeletal disorder diagnosis; osteoarthritis

The objective of this research project is to demonstrate the technical feasibility of an ultra-low-cost form of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) called Prepolarized MRI for human extremity imaging. Conventional MRI systems cost between 1 million dollars and 3 million dollars. We propose a novel Prepolarized MRI system that uses two inexpensive electromagnets rather than one expensive superconducting magnet. We aim to demonstrate that a complete dedicated extremity Prepolarized MRI scanner imaging can be constructed for less than 50,000 dollars while maintaining excellent image quality. Over the last five years, we have made excellent progress towards these goals, including our first in vivo human wrist images recorded earlier this month. The total capital cost of our 0.43 T Prepolarized MRI wrist imaging system was less than 35,000 dollars, excluding the MRI data acquisition console. Our principal aim is to expand the size of the imaging system to 31 cm to accommodate knees, feet, and elbows. Once basic imaging is achieived on the 31-cm-bore system, we plan several hardware and software improvements to increase the SNR and contrast flexibility. We also plan a monthly study of normal human knee cartilage conspicuity. Two Stanford Radiologists will compare the normal images with gold-standard images obtained from a 0.5 T GE extremity scanner, and gauge whether the previous month's engineering changes actually improved image conspicuity. We hope at the end of this four year grant to have constructed a 0.5 T Prepolarized MRI system with SNR and contrast comparable to a conventional 0.5 T MRI scanner for less than 50,000 dollars in capital costs. If successful, our research could ultimately lead to significantly greater availability of high-quality Prepolarized MRI scanners, which could be sold for less than the cost of an ultrasound scanner.

这项研究项目的目的是证明一种超低成本的磁共振成像（MRI）技术的可行性，这种技术被称为预极化MRI，用于人类四肢成像。传统的核磁共振成像系统成本在100万到300万美元之间。我们提出了一种新的预极化MRI系统，它使用两个便宜的电磁铁而不是一个昂贵的超导磁体。我们的目标是证明一个完整的专用肢体预极化MRI扫描仪成像可以在保持良好的图像质量的情况下，以低于5万美元的价格构建。在过去的五年中，我们在实现这些目标方面取得了卓越的进展，包括本月早些时候我们记录的第一个人体手腕图像。我们的0.43 T预极化MRI手腕成像系统的总资本成本不到35,000美元，不包括MRI数据采集控制台。我们的主要目标是将成像系统的尺寸扩大到31厘米，以适应膝盖、脚和肘部。一旦在31厘米口径的系统上实现基本成像，我们计划进行一些硬件和软件改进，以提高信噪比和对比度灵活性。我们还计划每月进行一次正常人类膝关节软骨突出的研究。两名斯坦福大学的放射科医生将把正常图像与从0.5 tge的四肢扫描仪获得的金标准图像进行比较，并评估前一个月的工程改变是否真的提高了图像的清晰度。我们希望在这四年的资助结束时，建造一个0.5 T预极化MRI系统，其信噪比和对比度可与传统的0.5 T MRI扫描仪相媲美，而资本成本低于5万美元。如果成功，我们的研究最终可能会导致高质量的预极化MRI扫描仪的可用性大大提高，其售价可能低于超声波扫描仪。