RF Interface System and Coil for Multi-Nuclear Lung MR Imaging at 3T

用于 3T 多核肺部 MR 成像的射频接口系统和线圈

• 批准号: 7908704
• 负责人: Ralph Hashoian
• 金额: $ 15.76万
• 依托单位: CLINICAL MR SOLUTIONS, LLC
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2010
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2010-08-16 至 2011-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/7908704
• 关键词: Address; Alveolar; Amplifiers; Applications Grants; Architecture; Biology; Biomedical Engineering; Blood; Boxing; Businesses; Cell Nucleus; Clinic; Clinical; Communities; Complex; Deposition; Diagnosis; Dimensions; Disease; Elements; Engineering; Ensure; Environment; Environmental air flow; Frequencies; Funding; Gases; Hearing; Helium; Hospitals; Human; Hybrids; Image; Imaging Techniques; Injection of therapeutic agent; Institution; Laboratories; Lasers; Lung; Lung diseases; MRI Scans; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Massachusetts; Measurement; Modality; Molds; Noble Gases; Noise; Nuclear; Optics; Oxygen; Pathology; Patients; Perfusion; Phase; Physicians; Physics; Physiological; Protons; RF coil; Research; Research Personnel; Research Technics; Safety; Scanning; Scientist; Signal Transduction; Site; Solutions; Structure; Structure of parenchyma of lung; Surface; System; Techniques; Technology; Technology Transfer; Testing; Translational Research; Universities; Work; Xenon; clinical application; clinical research site; clinically relevant; design; design and construction; electric impedance; experience; flexibility; imaging modality; in vivo; innovation; instrumentation; lung imaging; medical schools; meetings; multidisciplinary; patient safety; public health relevance; pulmonary function; radiologist; transmission process

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Hyperpolarized helium and xenon MRI of the lungs has been shown to provide useful physiological information about pulmonary function. Hyperpolarized helium imaging has been shown to provide outstanding imaging of lung gas spaces while allowing for structure-function information such as alveolar dimensions and oxygen depletion. Hyperpolarized xenon dissolves in the blood pool through lung parenchyma, opening up the potential for simultaneous ventilation and perfusion imaging and gas exchange measurements. Further, imaging of inert fluorinated gases such as SF6 show great promise for pulmonary imaging. While much work has been performed to characterize the utility of gas imaging, the field still remains in the research phase, partially due to the lack of available clinical RF technology for multinuclear scanning. Here, we propose to create an RF coil and interface platform that can be permanently tuned to any of the aforementioned specific frequencies. Further, this technology will be specifically created for 3T magnets, a field strength that more and more hospitals are purchasing and installing. This coil and interface design will be developed by Ralph Hashoian at Clinical MR Solutions, who has previously designed and delivered coils for gas imaging, and it will be validated and tested by Mitchell Albert at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, a co-inventor of in vivo hyperpolarized gas imaging. Our coil design will consist of a transmit/receive quadature flexible coil with four loop elements. This design will simultaneously allow for patient comfort and homogenous transmission with high signal to noise reception. Our preliminary results at 1.5T using this type of coil design in hyperpolarized helium imaging have produced excellent results. The coil interface will consist of a low loss, high power transmit receive switch, low noise pre-amplifiers, and a Quadrature hybrid, all integrated into an injection molded enclosure that will plug into the main system coil connection. Included will be specific OEM required circuits for coil ID, fault analysis and PIN diode drivers. This integrated interface approach will allow for easier coil connections for all the gas frequencies involved in the study and ensure a simple, robust and clinically relevant interface. Finally, our RF coil design and interface platform will be designed to overcome the challenges at 3T including high RF power deposition, increased patient impedance matching loss, and patient safety concerns. Once developed, we will test our design by acquiring hyperpolarized helium ventilation and airway images. These images will be evaluated by a radiologist for image quality and homogeneity. Taken together, our design will offer more clinically effective RF coils and interface to the research community and ultimately hasten the transition to the clinic. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Hyperpolarized gas and inert fluorinated gas MR imaging stand at the doorstep of clinical application. However, their advancement to the clinic is hindered by the lack of available multinuclear RF technology to perform these exams. Here, we propose an RF coil design and scanner interface that is seamlessly integrated into the clinical scanner to image hyperpolarized helium, xenon, or inert fluorinated gases at 3T. This design, which is targeted for clinical compliance, will allow for high signal to noise imaging while maintaining patient comfort and safety. Taken together, the proposed architecture of an integrated coil and interface will facilitate clinical gas lung imaging and ultimately help facilitate clinical acceptance and translational research of the technique.

描述（由申请人提供）：肺的超极化氦和氙MRI已被证明可提供有关肺功能的有用生理信息。超极化氦成像已被证明可以提供出色的肺气体空间成像，同时允许结构功能信息，如肺泡尺寸和氧气消耗。超极化氙通过肺实质溶解在血池中，为同时进行通气和灌注成像以及气体交换测量开辟了可能性。此外，诸如SF6的惰性氟化气体的成像显示出肺成像的巨大前景。虽然已经进行了大量的工作来表征气体成像的效用，但该领域仍处于研究阶段，部分原因是缺乏用于多核扫描的可用临床RF技术。在这里，我们建议创建一个RF线圈和接口平台，可以永久调谐到任何上述特定频率。此外，这项技术将专门为3 T磁体而设计，越来越多的医院正在购买和安装这种磁场强度。这种线圈和接口设计将由临床MR解决方案公司的Ralph Hashoian开发，他之前曾设计并交付过气体成像线圈，并将由马萨诸塞州大学医学院的Mitchell Albert进行验证和测试，他是体内超极化气体成像的共同发明者。我们的线圈设计将包括一个发射/接收四个回路元件的正交柔性线圈。该设计将同时允许患者舒适度和具有高信噪比接收的均匀传输。我们的初步结果在1.5T使用这种类型的线圈设计在超极化氦成像产生了很好的结果。线圈接口将包括一个低损耗、高功率发射接收开关、低噪声前置放大器和一个正交混合电路，所有这些都集成到一个注塑外壳中，该外壳将插入主系统线圈连接。包括线圈ID、故障分析和PIN二极管驱动器的特定OEM所需电路。这种集成接口方法将允许更容易地连接研究中涉及的所有气体频率的线圈，并确保简单、稳健和临床相关的接口。最后，我们的RF线圈设计和接口平台将被设计为克服3 T的挑战，包括高RF功率沉积、增加的患者阻抗匹配损耗和患者安全问题。一旦开发出来，我们将通过获取超极化氦通气和气道图像来测试我们的设计。这些图像将由放射科医生评价图像质量和均匀性。总之，我们的设计将提供更有效的临床射频线圈和接口的研究界，并最终加快过渡到临床。 公共卫生相关性：超极化气体和惰性氟化气体MR成像正处于临床应用的门槛。然而，由于缺乏可用的多核RF技术来执行这些检查，它们在临床上的进展受到阻碍。在这里，我们提出了一个射频线圈设计和扫描仪接口，无缝集成到临床扫描仪，以图像超极化氦，氙，或惰性氟化气体在3 T。该设计以临床合规性为目标，将允许高信噪比成像，同时保持患者舒适度和安全性。总之，所提出的集成线圈和接口的架构将促进临床气肺成像，并最终有助于促进该技术的临床接受和转化研究。