Portable MRI Technology for Neonatal Care

项目摘要/摘要 磁共振成像(MRI)，特别是弥散对比成像(MRI)已经成为无可争议的标准 用于检测和诊断新生儿脑部疾病和损伤，如缺氧缺血 脑病(HIE)。然而，这些大型、昂贵、具有潜在危险的工具的性质限制了 无障碍，并要求患者被运送到放射科套房。在新生儿重症监护室 在(NICU)环境下，患者转移带来了安全问题，因为它需要完全移交患者护理 并使新生儿暴露在运输和噪音的压力之下。尤其是HIE患者 通常不够稳定，不能在出生后几天内转移到扫描仪上。而是床边开颅 成像是用超声进行的，对HIE相关的早期异常敏感性较低。 我们设计了一种床边扫描仪，专门针对NICU中新生儿脑成像的需要。这个 建议的扫描仪将被运送到NICU的床边，优先处理和 操作婴儿并实现真正的PoC诊断和监控。我们极大地缩小了尺寸， 为新生儿所需的较小视野而设计的传统MRI硬件的成本和复杂性 脑部成像，与规范的扫描仪设计大相径庭。磁体、场梯度和射频 线圈将针对较小的成像体积进行优化，以最大限度地提高图像质量。若要允许在 射频屏蔽室，我们提出了一种EMI缓解方法，该方法使用外部 探测器。由于弥散加权成像在HIE患者人群中具有很高的价值，我们将开发一种罕见的弥散加权成像。 用于非传统扫描仪架构的序列。新的扫描仪将首先通过验证 具有真实组织特性的拟人化新生儿体模，然后在MGH新生儿重症监护室作为 除了对HIE患者的标准护理之外。我们将确定PoC MRI是否提供有价值的早期 关于大脑状况的信息，这在后来的高场磁共振图像中得到了证实，当时 Baby情况稳定，可以转移到传统的扫描仪上。

Project Summary/Abstract Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), especially with diffusion contrast, has been the undisputed standard of care for the detection and diagnosis of neonatal brain disorders and injuries such as Hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE). However, the nature of these large, expensive, potentially dangerous instruments limits accessibility and requires that patients be transported to a radiology suite. In the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) setting, patient transfer introduces safety concerns, since it requires a full hand-off of patient care responsibilities and exposes the neonate to stress from transport and acoustic noise. In particular, HIE patients are often not stable enough to transfer to the scanner for several days after birth. Instead bed-side cranial imaging is performed with ultrasound, which has a low sensitivity for early abnormalities associated with HIE. We design a bed-side scanner specifically for the needs of neonatal brain imaging in an NICU. The proposed scanner will be transported to the bedside in the NICU, prioritizing minimal handling and manipulation of the infant and enabling true POC diagnostics and monitoring. We significantly reduce the size, cost, and complexity of conventional MRI hardware by designing for the smaller FOV needed for neonatal brain imaging and significantly depart from the canonical scanner design. The magnet, field gradients, and RF coils will be optimized for the smaller imaging volume to maximize image quality. To allow operation outside an RF shielded room, we propose an EMI mitigation method that retrospectively removes artifacts using external detectors. As DWI imaging is highly valuable in the HIE patient population, we will develop a RARE DWI sequence for the unconventional scanner architecture. The new scanner will first be validated with an anthropomorphic neonatal phantom with realistic tissue properties and then at the MGH Neonatal ICU as an addition to the standard care of HIE patients. We will determine if the POC MRI offers valuable early information about the brain condition, which is corroborated in later high-field MRI images obtained when the baby is stable enough to be transferred to the conventional scanner.