Photomagnetic Imaging: A Novel Modality for Cancer Imaging

描述(申请人提供)：光磁成像：一种用于癌症成像的新方法在过去的几十年里，利用广泛的技术开发了各种体内成像方法，以获得有关被研究组织的结构、功能和分子信息。作为其中的一种，光学成像可以提供诸如血红蛋白浓度等功能信息，还可以显示外源性造影剂以及分子和功能标志物。不幸的是，由于生物组织的高度散射性质，光学成像的分辨率较低。虽然出现了像光声断层成像这样的新模式，可以提供更高分辨率的图像，但恢复参数的定量准确性仍然是主要问题之一。所有这些可用的光学成像技术的一个共同弱点是，它们只能从介质的边界获取数据。为了克服这一局限，我在这项提议中的主要目标是开发一种全新的方法--光磁成像，它仍然使用激光来加热被研究的介质，但使用核磁共振技术来获得高分辨率的组织温度图。通过对组织中的光传播和热传输进行适当的建模，将进一步将MR温度图转换为光学吸收图。我的假设是，光磁成像技术将提供定量更准确和更高分辨率的图像，因为从被研究的整个介质获取数据，改善了反问题的欠定条件。这项培训计划是为了利用小动物对这种新的成像方式进行第一次体内可行性研究。如果成功，结果将是一种新的成像方式的开始。由于临床磁共振扫描仪的使用，这项技术将立即具有临床应用潜力。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Photomagnetic Imaging: A Novel Modality for Cancer Imaging In the last decades, variety of in vivo imaging modalities have been developed using a broad spectrum of technologies to obtain structural, functional, and molecular information about the tissue under investigation. As one of these modalities, optical imaging can provide functional information such as hemoglobin concentration and also visualize exogenous contrast agents as well as molecular and functional markers. Unfortunately, optical imaging suffers from low resolution due to highly scattering nature of the biological tissue. Although, there are new emerging modalities like photo-acoustic tomography that can provide higher resolution images, quantitative accuracy of the recovered parameters still remains as one of the main issues. One common weakness of all these available optical imaging techniques is that they are capable of acquiring data only from the boundary of the medium. To overcome this limitation, my main goal in this proposal is to develop an entirely new approach, "Photo-magnetic imaging", which still uses laser light to heat the medium under investigation but employ MRI to obtain the temperature map of the tissue with high resolution. The MR temperature maps will further be converted into the optical absorption maps using proper modeling of light propagation and heat transfer in tissue. My hypothesis is that the photo-magnetic imaging technique will provide quantitatively more accurate and higher resolution images due to acquisition of data from the whole medium under investigation that improves the underdetermined condition of the inverse problem. This training proposal is geared toward the first in vivo feasibility studies of this nove imaging modality using small animals. If successful, the outcome will be the beginning of a new imaging modality. Due to the utilization of a clinical MR scanner, this technique will have immediate clinical translation potential.