Sixteen channel carbon-13 phased array spectroscopy at 7 Tesla

描述（由申请人提供）：核磁共振波谱（NMR或MRS）在当前国家个性化医疗的努力中发挥着独特的作用，能够研究与能量内在整合的完整功能组织中的代谢。 结构和功能性磁共振成像。虽然认识到MRS是用于代谢研究的独特/有利的检测技术，但普遍公认的关键缺点是缺乏灵敏度。足够的信号和分辨类似分子的能力是与患者相关的MRS的实际、常规使用所必需的两个因素。两者都在高场显著改善，使得最近全身商业7 T系统的可用性成为生物化学家的武器中添加的强大工具，生物化学家努力使MRS成为实用的（即适当灵敏的）体内检测工具。第二种增加的技术 NMR实验的灵敏度是通过使用相控阵RF线圈实现的。理想情况下，相控阵将与高场MRS的优势结合使用。目前，这一奋进受到以下事实的阻碍：商业7 T扫描仪的多核接收器通道数量有限，而不是使多通道1H成像的潜在更直接的兴趣成为可能。该提案旨在通过开发一种“附加”频率转换器来克服这一限制，该频率转换器为任何系统提供等于可用1H通道数量的宽带多通道能力，并通过开发用于7 T下1H和13 C光谱的表面和体积阵列线圈来克服这一限制。该项目将利用和促进德克萨斯A&M大学磁共振系统实验室和UT西南医学中心高级成像研究中心之间现有合作的独特能力。待研究的特定代谢过程是UTSW正在进行的研究的一部分，以了解乳腺癌和诱发乳腺癌的因素。这项工作将开发技术，更灵敏地检测乳腺肿瘤中的胆碱，作为恶性肿瘤和肿瘤侵袭行为高风险的指标。另一个公众非常感兴趣的问题是饮食在 乳腺癌的发病机制，与一般的假设，高饱和脂肪和单不饱和脂肪的饮食是乳腺癌的环境决定因素。研究乳腺脂肪成分与癌症风险之间的关系已经被证明是困难的， 这项工作将支持13 C NMR光谱作为一种基本上未探索的替代方法的作用。为完成这项工作，概述了三个具体目标：1）构建一个附加的多通道频移接口盒，以使UT西南医学中心的Philips Achieva 7 T扫描仪上现有的16通道1H接收器能够提供宽带多通道接收能力2）设计和构建16通道RF线圈阵列，用于7 T下的表面和体积1H和13 C NMR研究; 3）使用多通道13 C和1H MR光谱在7特斯拉下证明脂质谱和可溶性代谢物的定量。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR or MRS) plays a unique role in the current national effort towards personalized medicine, enabling the investigation of metabolism in intact, functioning tissues inherently integrated with the power of structural and functional MR imaging. While it is recognized that MRS is a unique/advantageous detection technique for metabolic studies, the universally acknowledged crucial drawback is a lack of sensitivity. Adequate signal and the ability to resolve similar molecules are two factors that are essential for practical, routine use of MRS relevant to patients. Both improve dramatically at high fields, making the recent availability of whole body commercial 7T systems a powerful tool added to the armament of biochemists striving to make MRS a practical (i.e. suitably sensitive) in vivo detection tool. A second technique for increasing the sensitivity of the NMR experiment is through the use of phased array RF coils. Ideally then, phased arrays would be used in combination with the benefits of high field MRS. This endeavor is currently hampered by the fact that commercial 7T scanners are limited in their number of multi-nuclear receiver channels, instead enabling the potentially more immediate interest in multi-channel 1H imaging. This proposal aims to overcome this limitation by developing an 'add-on' frequency converter to provide any system with broadband multi-channel capability equal to the number of available 1H channels and by developing surface and volume array coils for 1H and 13C spectroscopy at 7T. This project will leverage and promote distinctive capabilities in an existing collaboration between the Magnetic Resonance Systems Lab at Texas A&M University and the Advanced Imaging Research Center at UT Southwestern Medical Center. The specific metabolic processes to be investigated are part of ongoing studies at UTSW to understand breast cancer and the factors predisposing breast cancer. This work will develop technology to more sensitively detect choline in breast tumors as an indicator of malignancy and a high risk of aggressive behavior of tumors. Another issue of great interest to the public is the role of diet in the pathogenesis of breast cancer, with the general hypothesis that a diet high in saturated and monounsaturated fats is an environmental determinant of breast cancer. It has proven difficult to study the relation of breast fat composition to the risk of cancer with invasive biopsies, and this work will support the role of 13C NMR spectroscopy as a largely unexplored alternative. Three specific aims are outlined to accomplish this work: 1) Build an add-on multi-channel frequency shifting interface box to enable the existing 16-channel 1H receiver on the Philips Achieva 7T scanner at UT Southwestern Medical Center to provide broadband multi-channel receive capability 2) Design and construct 16-channel RF coil arrays for surface and volume 1H and 13C NMR studies at 7T and 3) Demonstrate quantification of the lipid profile and soluble metabolites using multi- channel 13C and 1H MR spectroscopy at 7 Tesla.