A Low-Cost Cryosusceptometer

描述(由申请人提供)： 临床上迫切需要一种安全、准确和容易获得的非侵入性测量体内铁储存的方法。唯一经过临床验证的非侵入性测量仪器是基于超导电性的磁感应仪，但其复杂性、成本(约1,000,000美元)以及对液氦的要求限制了其在少数几个研究中心的使用。由于二十多年来没有出现任何简化或成本降低的情况，人们普遍认为基于超导电性的灵敏度测量不太可能进入一般临床实践。 使用集成系统方法，复杂性/成本问题最近在NIDDK支持的BRP计划中得到了解决。这导致了一种显著简化了仪器和测量程序的设计。它还将系统成本降低了十分之一以上，同时保持了超导仪器的固有精度。 新设备仍然需要冷冻剂(液氮)，必须定期补充。这项SBIR第一阶段的目标是利用低温制冷机技术的最新进展，以消除临床实施的最后障碍。简单、低成本的低温感受器将迅速满足迫切的铁评估需求，并为超导磁化率测量在医学和工业上开辟许多其他应用。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): There is a pressing clinical need for a non-invasive measure of body iron stores that is safe, accurate, and readily available. The only instrument that is clinically validated for non-invasive measurement is a magnetic susceptometer based on superconductivity, but its complexity, cost (approximately $1,000,000), and requirement for liquid helium have restricted its use to a handful of research centers. Since no simplification or cost reduction has occurred for over two decades, it has been widely assumed that superconductivity-based susceptometry is unlikely to enter general clinical practice. Using an integrated systems approach, the complexity/cost issue has recently been addressed in a BRP program supported by the NIDDK. This has resulted in a design that significantly simplifies both the instrument and the measurement procedure. It also reduces the system cost by over a factor of ten, while retaining the intrinsic accuracy of superconducting instrumentation. The new device still requires a cryogen (liquid nitrogen) that must be regularly replenished. The goal in Phase I of this SBIR is to exploit recent advances in cryocooler technology so as to remove this final barrier to clinical implementation. Simple low-cost cryosusceptometers would rapidly satisfy the pressing iron assessment need and open up many other applications for superconducting susceptometry, in both medicine and industry.