Acquisition of a 7T human MR system for the development of ultra high resolution

描述（由申请人提供）：磁共振技术的发展使生物医学研究人员在理解和治疗人类疾病方面取得了重大进展，其中磁共振项目的主要优势领域是应用于糖尿病、癫痫和图像引导手术、精神疾病和学习障碍。我们在这些领域的进步与MR技术的发展齐头并进，MR技术的重点是获得代谢通量和代谢物水平的定量图像，以及血流量、血容量和代谢的定量fMRI测量。所有这些测量都对MR的灵敏度和空间分辨率提出了极高的要求。目前人类可达到的最高分辨率和灵敏度是7T系统。根据已发表的研究，可以实现MRSI的3倍灵敏度和定量fMRI测量的类似增强。然而，7T MR在临床研究中的应用受到了限制，主要是由于Bo不均匀性的增加，无法获得无全脑畸变的MRSI和fMRI。例如，将MR应用于癫痫、神经退行性疾病和图像引导的神经外科手术计划，需要在靠近大脑底部的区域（如海马体）进行高质量的MRSI和fMRI，因为那里存在最严重的Bo不均匀性。目前，现有的7T系统都没有在这些区域提供足够质量的MRS或fMRI用于研究目的，更不用说手术应用了。基于我们开发和应用MR技术解决临床研究中的重要问题的丰富经验，我们强烈地感觉到，7T磁体技术所带来的几倍更高的灵敏度具有极大推进该领域的潜力。因此，本项目的主要目标是：1)购买并安装瓦里安/Magnex 7t68系统，该系统具有针对全脑动态摆片优化的梯度和垫片；2)使用动态垫片更新、Bo和B1鲁棒脉冲序列以及并行成像方法，开发定量的全脑和肢体超高分辨率核磁共振成像和功能磁共振成像；3)将该技术应用于耶鲁大学的糖尿病、癫痫和图像引导神经外科、精神病学、学习障碍继续在理解和治疗人类疾病方面取得重要进展。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The development of MR technology has allowed biomedical researchers to make major advances in understanding and treating human disease among the major areas of strength in our MR program are applications to diabetes, epilepsy and image guided surgery, psychiatric disease, and learning disorders. Our progress in these areas has gone hand in hand with the development of MR technology focused on obtaining quantitative images of metabolic fluxes and metabolite levels, and quantitative fMRI measures of blood flow, blood volume and metabolism. All of these measurements put extreme demands on MR sensitivity and spatial resolution. At present the highest resolution and sensitivity achievable in humans is from 7T systems. Based on published studies a 3 fold sensitivity in MRSI and a similar enhancement for quantitative fMRI measures can be achieved. However the application of 7T MR to clinical research has been restricted due to the inability, primarily as a consequence of the increased Bo inhomogeneity, to obtain whole brain distortion free MRSI and fMRI. For example applications of MR to epilepsy, neurodegenerative diseases, and image guided neurosurgical planning requires high quality MRSI and fMRI in regions near the base of the brain such as the hippocampus, where the worst Bo inhomogeneity is present. At present none of the existing 7T systems have presented adequate quality MRS or fMRI in these regions for research purposes much less surgical applications. We feel strongly, based upon our extensive experience developing and applying MR technology to important questions in clinical research, that the several fold higher sensitivity made possible by 7T magnet technology has the potential of greatly advancing the field. Therefore the major goals of this project are to 1) purchase and install a Varian/Magnex 7T 68 system with gradients and shims optimized for whole brain dynamic shimming, 2) develop quantitative whole brain and limb ultra high resolution MRSI and fMRI using dynamic shim updating, Bo and B1 robust pulse sequences, and parallel imaging approaches and 3) apply this technology to allow the programs at Yale in diabetes, epilepsy and image guided neurosurgery, psychiatry, and learning disorders to continue to make important strides in the understanding and treatment of human disease.