Siemens Tim Trio 3T Whole Body MR Scanner

西门子 Tim Trio 3T 全身磁共振扫描仪

• 批准号: 7497828
• 负责人: Weili Lin
• 金额: $ 200万
• 依托单位: UNIV OF NORTH CAROLINA CHAPEL HILL
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2008
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2008-07-01 至 2010-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/7497828
• 关键词: Allegra; Animals; Area; Arts; Childhood; Commit; Computer software; Diffusion Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Funding; Grant; Head; Human; Image; Imaging technology; Institution; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Methods; Neurologic; Positioning Attribute; Price; Research; Research Activity; Research Personnel; System; Technology; Time; United States National Institutes of Health; data acquisition; improved; programs; stem; tomography

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): A 3T Siemens Allegra head-only MR scanner fully dedicated to research is currently available at UNC-Chapel Hill (UNC-CH). This system has been widely utilized and is the sole human MR research scanner at UNC-CH. While most of the investigators have been happy with the capability and the image quality offered by this system, there are growing concerns regarding the limitations as well as the outlooks of this system. These concerns stem from the following reasons. First, while Siemens has continued to support our system, it is public information that Siemens will not put out additional efforts to further improve either the software or hardware of the Allegra system. Instead the main focus in Siemens is whole body MR scanners. As a result, given the rapid advances of MR technology, the capabilities of our current system will soon be out of date. Second, this system has a major hardware limitation when it comes to parallel imaging capability, one of the most major improvements in recent MR technology capable of shortening data acquisition time while preserving image quality. This limitation stems from the fact that this system can only equip with a maximum of 8 receivers, making it difficult to take full advantage of the parallel imaging technology. Finally, since this is a head-only scanner, it has been difficult expanding MR research activities beyond the neurological areas, nor does it allow imaging large animals. Therefore, in order to circumvent all of the above limitations, provide state-of-the-art MR imaging capability, and expand the MR imaging research program beyond neurologically related focuses at UNC-CH, funds are requested to replace our current Siemens 3T Allegra head-only scanner to a Siemens whole body TIM Trio 3T system. The currently existing Allegra will be traded in ($250k) so as to obtain a favorable price from Siemens ($2.05M). The major benefits offered by the requested Tim Trio 3T MR scanner for the currently funded NIH grants include: i) utilizing multi-channel (>8 receivers) capability to reduce total data acquisition time for pediatric studies; ii) minimizing geometric distortion when EPI images are acquired, ie diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and functional MRI (fMRI) through the utilization of parallel imaging methods; and iii) further expanding MR research activities beyond neurologically related projects thanks to the whole body capabilities. Finally, an additional benefit is that our Institution has committed to purchase a position emission tomography (PET) insert that will be installed on the requested MR scanner upon successful funding of this application. This PET insert will not only further expand the imaging research program beyond MR but also allow the requested MR scanner to become an integrated MR-PET scanner, acquiring MR and PET images simultaneously.

描述（由申请人提供）：目前，北卡罗来纳大学教堂山分校 (UNC-CH) 提供完全致力于研究的 3T 西门子 Allegra 头戴式 MR 扫描仪。该系统已得到广泛应用，是 UNC-CH 唯一的人类 MR 研究扫描仪。虽然大多数研究人员对该系统提供的功能和图像质量感到满意，但人们越来越担心该系统的局限性和前景。这些担忧源于以下原因。首先，虽然西门子继续支持我们的系统，但根据公开信息，西门子不会付出额外的努力来进一步改进 Allegra 系统的软件或硬件。相反，西门子的主要关注点是全身 MR 扫描仪。因此，鉴于 MR 技术的快速发展，我们当前系统的功能很快就会过时。其次，该系统在并行成像能力方面存在重大硬件限制，而并行成像能力是最近 MR 技术中最重大的改进之一，能够缩短数据采集时间，同时保持图像质量。这一限制源于该系统最多只能配备8个接收器，难以充分利用并行成像技术。最后，由于这是一台仅头部扫描仪，因此很难将 MR 研究活动扩展到神经领域之外，也不允许对大型动物进行成像。因此，为了规避上述所有限制，提供最先进的 MR 成像能力，并将 UNC-CH 的 MR 成像研究项目扩展到神经学相关重点之外，需要资金将我们当前的西门子 3T Allegra 头部扫描仪替换为西门子全身 TIM Trio 3T 系统。目前现有的 Allegra 将进行交易（25 万美元），以便从西门子获得优惠价格（205 万美元）。为当前资助的 NIH 拨款请求的 Tim Trio 3T MR 扫描仪提供的主要好处包括： i) 利用多通道（>8 个接收器）功能来减少儿科研究的总数据采集时间； ii) 通过利用并行成像方法，在获取 EPI 图像（即扩散张量成像（DTI）和功能 MRI（fMRI））时最小化几何失真； iii) 借助全身功能，进一步将 MR 研究活动扩展到神经相关项目之外。最后，另一个好处是，我们的机构已承诺购买位置发射断层扫描 (PET) 插入件，一旦本申请成功获得资助，该插入件将安装在所需的 MR 扫描仪上。该 PET 插入不仅将进一步扩展 MR 之外的成像研究项目，而且还允许所需的 MR 扫描仪成为集成的 MR-PET 扫描仪，同时采集 MR 和 PET 图像。