Enhanced MR for morphological characterization of ligaments, tendons and bone

增强 MR 用于韧带、肌腱和骨骼的形态表征

• 批准号: 10246251
• 负责人: Xiaojuan Li
• 金额: $ 72.89万
• 依托单位: STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK AT BUFFALO
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2020-08-05 至 2025-07-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10246251
• 关键词: Acceleration; Address; Anatomy; Awareness; Base Sequence; Biomedical Engineering; Biomedical Research; Body part; Cartilage Diseases; Clinical; Collagen; Computer software; Connective Tissue; Connective Tissue Diseases; Development; Diabetes Mellitus; Diagnostic; Disease; Disease Management; Evaluation; Frequencies; Hand; Human; Image; Imaging Device; Imaging Techniques; Injury; Interdisciplinary Study; Involuntary Movements; Joints; Knee; Ligaments; Limb structure; Lower Extremity; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Magnetism; Methods; Minnesota; Morphologic artifacts; Morphology; Motion; Musculoskeletal; Musculoskeletal Diseases; Musculoskeletal System; Natural graphite; Osteoporosis; Outcome; Pennsylvania; Performance; Periosteum; Physicians; Predisposition; Public Health; Relaxation; Reproducibility; Research; Resolution; Rheumatism; Safety; Scanning; Scientist; Signal Transduction; Solid; Specimen; Speed; Structure; Techniques; Technology; Tendon structure; Testing; Theoretical model; Time; Tissues; United States; Universities; Upper Extremity; Validation; absorption; base; bone; bone imaging; calcification; clinical Diagnosis; clinically relevant; cortical bone; design; design and construction; diagnosis evaluation; disability; flexibility; foot; high resolution imaging; human subject; human tissue; imaging modality; imaging scientist; improved; in vivo; ligament injury; millisecond; musculoskeletal imaging; non-invasive imaging; novel; safety assessment; solid state; substantia spongiosa; technology validation; tool

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT According to Council for Disability Awareness, diseases of the musculoskeletal system and connective tissue, such as the ligaments, tendons and bone are the #1 cause of disability in the United States. MR imaging has been increasingly becoming the diagnostic tool of choice for evaluation and management of these diseases and injuries due to its potential of providing information on not only anatomic structure but also function noninvasively. However, the capability of MRI in studying human ligaments, tendons and bone is limited by inadequate sensitivity and slow acquisitions of conventional MR technology. Semi-solid/solid tissues, including collagen-rich tissues such as calcified ligaments and tendons, as well as periosteum, cortical bone and trabecular bone, provide very little MR signal with traditional MRI due to their very short transverse (T2) relaxation time of a few milliseconds or less. In addition, during the long acquisition times, involuntary movements of human subjects introduce motion artifacts, posing a critical challenge in obtaining high- resolution images with diagnostic value. Several recently developed technologies have the potential to address these limitations. Ultrahigh field 7T MRI, parallel imaging, and compressed sensing have demonstrated unique advantages of high sensitivity and fast acquisitions in vivo. Studies on musculoskeletal imaging using ultra- short echo time (UTE) and zero echo time (ZTE) methods have shown unparalleled capability to image short T2 species normally invisible in MRI. However, the implementation of these technologies at ultrahigh fields is challenging due to design difficulties of the required high frequency multichannel coil arrays, as well as the problems associated with ultrahigh fields, e.g. increased susceptibility, B1 inhomogeneity, and increased SAR. In this study, through a synergistic bioengineering research partnership, we propose a comprehensive project for developing advanced hardware and imaging methods at 7T to enable morphological and functional characterization of human ligaments, tendons and bone. These developments aim to produce highly sensitive, isotropic ~100-150um resolution images of semi-solid connective tissues with clinically relevant contrast in 1 minute scan time. Hardware developments will include multichannel coil arrays for knee and extremities using quadrature and flexible array technology with metamaterial decoupling, as well as application of pyrolytic graphite materials for reducing susceptibility artifacts. Imaging acquisition developments will be based on improved UTE/ZTE sequences, and we propose new integrated techniques for improved semi-solid tissue contrast, motion correction, and acceleration using parallel imaging and compressed sensing. We will also validate the methods developed and assess the performance and safety/SAR. This research would provide sensitive imaging tools for morphological and functional characterization of ligaments, tendons and bone, which are highly demanded and essential for studying semi-solid connective tissues. We expect this research will have a long-term clinical impact in the management of musculoskeletal system diseases and injuries.

项目概要/摘要 根据残疾意识委员会的说法，肌肉骨骼系统和结缔组织疾病， 韧带、肌腱和骨骼等损伤是美国第一大残疾原因。 MR 成像有 越来越成为评估和管理这些疾病的首选诊断工具 和伤害，因为它不仅可以提供解剖结构信息，还可以提供功能信息 非侵入性地。然而，MRI 在研究人体韧带、肌腱和骨骼方面的能力受到以下因素的限制： 传统 MR 技术的灵敏度不足且采集缓慢。半固体/固体组织，包括 富含胶原蛋白的组织，如钙化韧带和肌腱，以及骨膜、皮质骨和 由于骨小梁的横向 (T2) 很短，因此传统 MRI 提供的 MR 信号非常少 弛豫时间为几毫秒或更短。此外，在长时间的采集过程中，不自觉地 人类受试者的运动会引入运动伪影，这对获得高 具有诊断价值的分辨率图像。最近开发的几项技术有潜力解决 这些限制。超高场 7T MRI、并行成像和压缩感知已展现出独特的优势 具有灵敏度高、体内采集速度快等优点。肌肉骨骼超声成像研究 短回波时间 (UTE) 和零回波时间 (ZTE) 方法显示出无与伦比的短回波成像能力 T2 物种在 MRI 中通常不可见。然而，这些技术在超高领域的实施还很困难。 由于所需的高频多通道线圈阵列的设计困难以及 与超高场相关的问题，例如敏感性增加、B1 不均匀性和 SAR 增加。 在这项研究中，通过协同生物工程研究伙伴关系，我们提出了一个综合项目 用于开发 7T 的先进硬件和成像方法，以实现形态和功能 人体韧带、肌腱和骨骼的表征。这些发展旨在产生高度敏感、 半固体结缔组织的各向同性 ~100-150um 分辨率图像，具有临床相关对比度 1 分钟的扫描时间。硬件开发将包括用于膝盖和四肢的多通道线圈阵列 具有超材料解耦的正交和柔性阵列技术，以及热解的应用 用于减少磁化率伪影的石墨材料。成像采集的发展将基于 改进的 UTE/ZTE 序列，我们提出了改进半固体组织的新集成技术 使用并行成像和压缩感知的对比度、运动校正和加速。我们还将 验证所开发的方法并评估性能和安全性/SAR。这项研究将提供 用于韧带、肌腱和骨骼形态和功能表征的灵敏成像工具， 这对于研究半固体结缔组织来说是非常需要和必不可少的。我们期待这项研究 将对肌肉骨骼系统疾病和损伤的管理产生长期的临床影响。