3T MRI for Clinical and Translational Imaging

描述（由申请人提供）：本重新提交申请请求资金支持在Athinoula a . Martinos生物医学成像中心购买3特斯拉西门子MAGNETOM“Skyra”MRI系统。拟议的仪器将升级马蒂诺斯中心现有的11年历史的1.5特斯拉西门子Avanto扫描仪，将专门用于全身人体MRI研究，并将支持马萨诸塞州总医院和邻近机构的大型和不断增长的临床/转化研究人员社区的资助研究。对提议的3T MRI系统的需求有几个方面。首先，现有的1.5T扫描仪不再提供技术优势，以推动我们的研究人员的研究更上一层楼。高场强提供更好的图像质量，对大脑结构或功能的细微差异更敏感，这些细微差异可能表征显著的生理和病理差异。认识到3T扫描相对于1.5T扫描的好处，我们社区的临床/转化研究人员越来越多地将他们的研究转向3T。然而，随着他们的数量和研究的增长，该中心满足需求的能力也日益受到挑战。虽然Martinos中心非常幸运地拥有几个专门用于研究的3T MRI系统，但每个系统都有一个明确的研究任务，包括开发高n射频阵列线圈和梯度技术（分别为3号和4号舱）。由于正在进行的技术开发工作意味着这些系统经常需要进行硬件修改，因此它们无法提供支持纵向临床研究所需的稳定性。因此，广泛地说，临床和转化研究受到各种因素的阻碍，包括可用扫描时间的短缺，纵向临床研究的不稳定性。拟议的仪器不仅将提高临床/转化研究人员进行当前研究的能力，还将为富有成效的新项目和合作提供机会。随着所提议的仪器对患者友好的成像环境对这些项目的影响，我们预计，从事主要人类疾病的基于mri的研究的广泛和活跃的临床/转化科学家社区将准备好发现与许多神经和精神疾病相关的令人兴奋的新诊断和治疗应用。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This resubmission application requests funding to support the purchase of a 3 Tesla Siemens MAGNETOM "Skyra" MRI system at the Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging. The proposed instrument, which will upgrade the Martinos Center's existing 11-year-old 1.5 Tesla Siemens Avanto scanner, will be dedicated for whole-body human MRI research and will support the funded research of a large and growing community of clinical/translational investigators at the Massachusetts General Hospital and neighboring institutions. The need for the proposed 3T MRI system has a number of facets. First, the existing 1.5T scanner no longer provides the technological edge to drive our investigators' research to the next level. Higher field strength provides better image quality, and greater sensitivity to the subtle differences in brain structure or function that may characterize significant physiological and pathological differences. In recognition of the benefits of scanning at 3T versus 1.5T, the clinical/translational investigators within our community have increasingly transition their studies to 3T. However, as their numbers and their research grow, the Center's ability to accommodate demand is also increasingly challenged. Although the Martinos Center has the great fortunate of having several research-dedicated 3T MRI systems already on site, each has a specific defined research mission that includes development of high-N RF array coils and gradient technologies (Bays 3 and 4, respectively). Because the ongoing technology development work means these systems often undergo hardware modifications, they do not offer the stability needed to support longitudinal clinical research. As a result, broadly, clinical and translational research studies are hindered by a variety of factors that include a shortage of available scan time, instability for longitudinal clinical studies. The proposed instrument will not only enhance the ability of clinical/translational investigators to conduct their current research, it will also provide opportunities for fruitful new projects and collaborations. With the patient-friendly imaging environment of the proposed instrument brought to bear on these projects, we anticipate that the broad and active growing community of clinical/translational scientists engaged in MRI-based studies of major human disorders will be poised to find exciting new diagnostic and therapeutic applications relevant to a many neurological and psychiatric diseases. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Imaging technologies such as MRI have enabled clinical investigations to better characterize human disease and, thus, inform the development of more improved treatment. Newer-generation technologies designed for patient-friendly operation offer dramatic improvements in image quality to better detect the physiological subtleties that may differentiate health from disease, and in turn advance understanding of human disease to optimize patient care. We purpose to upgrade our aging clinically oriented MRI scanner in order to leverage critical cutting-edge advances in MRI technology to support ongoing and developing areas of clinical research at the Massachusetts General Hospital.