Quantitative magnetic resonance imaging of the prostate at 7 tesla

7 特斯拉下前列腺的定量磁共振成像

• 批准号: 2453269
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: University of Glasgow
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Studentship
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2020 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=studentship-2453269
• 关键词: Quantitative; magnetic; resonance; imaging; prostate

Studentship strategic priority area:Medical Physics Keywords:Prostate, MRI, 7T, RF coilsThis PhD project will be linked to a major new initiative funded by UKRI,who are providing £38m to develop the Precision Medicine Living Lab centred around the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital.The Living Lab aims to integrate medical research across a wide range of disciplines,improving patient outcomes & promoting innovation that will benefit the local economy.The programme includes technology development in clinical MRI at the Imaging Centre of Excellence (ICE), which opened in 2017 to house one of the first 7T MRI scanners installed in a clinical setting.The PhD project will focus on the development & application of 7T MRI for prostate cancer,working in conjunction with Living Lab partners from MR CoilTech,Siemens Healthcare & the NHS.MRI is a valuable tool for the diagnosis of prostate cancer & for monitoring treatment response.Current radiological practice relies on a qualitative visual assessment of images but there is an increasing use of quantitative methods [1] that map diffusion coefficients & relaxation times,or analyse tumour shape & texture.Currently,prostate MRI examinations are performed at a magnetic-field strength of 1.5T or 3T.Recent developments have seen the introduction of 7T MRI scanners into clinical settings.These systems provide a higher signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) [2],which enables an increased spatial resolution & generates more precise parameter estimates.These benefits provide the potential for histopathological features of the prostate to be identified in vivo [3] & for an improved diagnostic accuracy to stage T2 versus T3 tumours at the time of radical prostatectomy.However,MRI at 7T faces the challenge of a reduced electromagnetic wavelength in tissue,which leads to inhomogeneity in the radiofrequency (RF) transmit field and a poor image uniformity.This limitation can be overcome by using parallel-transmit (pTx) methods [4] in which multiple RF channels are used with dedicated pulse waveforms to create a spatially uniform transmit field.The development of pTx technology is a key requirement for clinical MRI at 7T & this will be one of the topics addressed by academic & industry partners within the Living Lab programme.This work is planned for a number of anatomical regions,including the prostate,which will be the specific focus of the proposed PhD project.In addition to the development of MRI acquisition techniques, the Living Lab initiative will also provide funding to start a medical image processing group, which will develop dedicated data-processing and visualisation tools for 7T MRI scans.These tools will be used within the PhD project to provide reliable quantitative parameter maps of the prostate that can be integrated into a wider programme of precision medicine for prostate cancer.The aim of the PhD project will be to develop quantitative MRI of the prostate at 7T to support a precision-medicine approach to the clinical management of prostate cancer.This will be achieved as a series of sub-projects with the following objectives respectively:(1)design & construction of a multi-channel RF transmit coil using a commercial software package for electromagnetic simulation;(2)coil testing for technical performance & safety;(3)optimisation of in-house pTx pulse sequences & image-processing protocols in healthy subjects & patients; &(4) preliminary clinical study to compare with standard methods.With reference to the sub-projects listed above,the student will receive training in the following areas:(1)practical skills in electrical engineering and computer modelling,theoretical knowledge of RF electronics and electromagnetism;(2)experimental design & data analysis,safety considerations in MRI,device testing in medical physics;(3)MRI pulse-sequence development,MRI physics,image reconstruction ?ocessing,scientific programming;(4)clinical-study design,medical statistics,clinical aspects of prostate MRI.

学生奖学金战略优先领域：医学物理关键词：前列腺，MRI，7 T，RF线圈这个博士项目将与UKRI资助的一项重大新计划相联系，UKRI将提供3800万英镑用于开发以伊丽莎白女王大学医院为中心的精准医学生活实验室。生活实验室旨在整合广泛学科的医学研究，改善患者的治疗效果并促进有利于当地经济的创新。该计划包括在成像卓越中心（ICE）的临床MRI技术开发，该项目于2017年开放，安装了第一批安装在临床环境中的7 T MRI扫描仪之一。博士项目将专注于开发&与MR CoilTech的Living Lab合作伙伴合作，将7 T MRI应用于前列腺癌，Siemens Healthcare & the NHS.MRI是诊断前列腺癌和监测治疗反应的有价值的工具。目前的放射学实践依赖于图像的定性视觉评估，但越来越多地使用定量方法[1]绘制扩散系数和弛豫时间，或分析肿瘤形状和纹理。目前，前列腺MRI检查是在1.5T或3 T的磁场强度下进行的。最近的发展已经将7 T MRI扫描仪引入临床环境。这些系统提供更高的信噪比（SNR）[2]，这使得空间分辨率增加，并产生更精确的参数估计。这些好处提供了潜在的前列腺组织病理学特征，以确定在体内[3]，在根治性乳腺癌切除术时，T2期肿瘤与T3期肿瘤的诊断准确性有所提高。然而，7 T的MRI面临着组织中电磁波波长降低的挑战，这导致射频（RF）发射场的不均匀性和差的图像均匀性。这种限制可以通过使用并行发射（pTx）方法[4]，其中多个RF通道与专用脉冲波形一起使用，以创建空间均匀的发射场。pTx技术的开发是7 T临床MRI的关键要求，这将是Living Lab计划中学术和行业合作伙伴解决的主题之一。这项工作计划用于许多解剖区域，包括前列腺，这将是拟议的博士项目的具体重点。除了MRI采集技术的发展，生活实验室倡议还将提供资金，开始一个医学图像处理组，它将开发专用数据-7 T MRI扫描的处理和可视化工具。这些工具将用于博士项目，以提供可靠的前列腺定量参数图，该博士项目的目标是开发7 T的前列腺定量MRI，以支持前列腺癌临床治疗的精确医学方法。该项目将通过一系列子项目实现，其目标分别为：（1）使用商业电磁模拟软件包设计和构建多通道RF发射线圈;（2）线圈的技术性能和安全性测试;（3）在健康受试者和患者中优化内部pTx脉冲序列和图像处理协议;以及（4）与标准方法进行比较的初步临床研究。参考上面列出的子项目，学生将接受以下方面的培训：（1）电机工程和计算机建模的实践技能，射频电子学和电磁学的理论知识;（2）实验设计和数据分析，MRI的安全考虑，医疗物理学中的设备测试;（3）MRI脉冲序列发展、MRI物理、图像重建？（4）临床研究设计、医学统计学、前列腺MRI的临床方面。