MB-SWIFT as a novel approach for simultaneous functional imaging of the brain and spinal cord

MB-SWIFT 作为大脑和脊髓同步功能成像的新方法

• 批准号: 10562073
• 负责人: Olli Grohn
• 金额: $ 51.62万
• 依托单位: UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-01-01 至 2026-11-30
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10562073
• 关键词: 3-Dimensional; Aging; Area; Biomedical Research; Brain; Brain imaging; Breathing; Cardiac; Central Nervous System; Cervical; Collaborations; Data; Dedications; Development; Distant; Electrophysiology (science); Evaluation; Excision; Finland; Fourier Transform; Functional Imaging; Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Funding; Future; Goals; Human; Image; Individual; Institution; Investigation; Knowledge; Location; Lumbar spinal cord structure; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Measures; Methods; Minnesota; Modality; Morphologic artifacts; Motion; Nervous System Physiology; Neurodegenerative Disorders; Neurons; Noise; Outcome; Pain; Physiologic pulse; Physiological; Positioning Attribute; Predisposition; Procedures; Protocols documentation; Publications; RF coil; Radial; Rattus; Reproducibility; Research; Research Design; Resolution; Rest; Sampling; Scheme; Site; Slice; Spinal Cord; Spinal cord injury; Surrogate Markers; Techniques; Testing; Time; Universities; clinical application; design; imaging modality; magnetic field; member; millisecond; neuroimaging; novel; novel strategies; pre-clinical research; prevent; resilience; tool; translation to humans; virtual

ABSTRACT Our goal is to establish a novel MRI approach to acquire functional MRI (fMRI) data simultaneously from brain and spinal cord. Unlike standard MRI readouts, our approach does not require a dedicated shimming procedure, as it is based on the newly developed zero echo time MRI pulse sequence entitled Multi-Band SWeep Imaging with Fourier Transformation (MB-SWIFT) which is inherently resilient to magnetic field inhomogeneities. Comprehensive evaluations of the central nervous system (CNS) function will tremendously benefit from this imaging modality, particularly in areas of research such as spinal cord injury, neurodegenerative diseases, pain and aging. Thus far, functional neuroimaging of the CNS has been an untapped area of research due to several technical challenges, the biggest of which is the need to efficiently shim a field of view large enough to cover both brain and spinal cord. Solutions of per-slice dynamic shimming approaches have been proposed. However, they are limited by the settling-time of eddy currents, they considerably prolong the experimental session, and they have been applied only to cover cervical (but not lower) spinal cord. Furthermore, dynamic shimming allows only inefficient sequential rather than simultaneous acquisitions of brain and spinal cord, posing additional challenges for CNS fMRI. As proven by our preliminary data, MB-SWIFT can instead image two fields of view (FOVs) at distant locations in brain and lumbar spinal cord in a true simultaneous fashion (i.e., within 1 ms of each other), thus allowing unprecedented functional imaging of the CNS that is unattainable with standard imaging modalities for fMRI. The current project is a proof-of-concept study conducted in rats, designed to first optimize the MB-SWIFT protocol including the dual RF coil and the dual FOV acquisition, then to demonstrate that fMRI of CNS with MB-SWIFT provides robust fMRI outcomes in absence of dedicated shimming solutions. Moreover, we will optimize spoke order of MB-SWIFT and post-processing pipeline for handling physiological noise, and demonstrate that MB-SWIFT provides surrogate markers of neuronal activity in spinal cord. Finally we will establish inter-subject, intra-subject and inter-site reproducibility of task-based and resting-state fMRI outcomes extracted from the CNS with dual FOV MB-SWIFT. Once completed, the study will provide an invaluable tool for pre-clinical research, and will set the stage for translation to humans.

摘要 我们的目标是建立一种新的磁共振成像方法，从大脑中同时获取功能磁共振成像（fMRI）数据 和脊髓。与标准MRI读数不同，我们的方法不需要专门的匀场程序， 因为它是基于新开发的零回波时间MRI脉冲序列，称为多波段扫描成像 利用傅立叶变换（MB-SWIFT），其对磁场不均匀性具有固有的弹性。 对中枢神经系统（CNS）功能的全面评估将极大地受益于此 成像方式，特别是在脊髓损伤、神经退行性疾病、疼痛等研究领域 和衰老。到目前为止，CNS的功能性神经成像一直是一个未开发的研究领域，由于几个原因， 技术挑战，其中最大的是需要有效地填补一个足够大的视野，以覆盖 包括大脑和脊髓已经提出了每片动态匀场方法的解决方案。然而，在这方面， 它们受到涡流的稳定时间的限制，它们大大延长了实验时间， 它们仅被应用于覆盖颈部（而不是下部）脊髓。此外，动态匀场允许 只有低效的顺序而不是同时获取大脑和脊髓，造成额外的 中枢神经系统功能磁共振成像的挑战正如我们的初步数据所证明的那样，MB-SWIFT可以对两个视场进行成像 （FOV）以真正的同时方式在脑和腰脊髓中的远处位置处（即，1 ms内 因此，允许对CNS进行前所未有的功能成像，这是用标准成像无法实现的。 功能磁共振成像的成像模式。目前的项目是在大鼠中进行的概念验证研究，旨在首先 优化MB-SWIFT协议，包括双射频线圈和双FOV采集，然后证明 在没有专用匀场解决方案的情况下，使用MB-SWIFT的CNS的fMRI提供了稳健的fMRI结果。 此外，我们将优化MB-SWIFT的辐条顺序和后处理管道以处理生理 噪声，并证明MB-SWIFT提供了脊髓中神经元活动的替代标记物。最后 我们将建立基于任务和静息状态的功能磁共振成像的受试者间、受试者内和部位间的可重复性 使用双FOV MB-SWIFT从CNS中提取的结果。一旦完成，研究将提供一个 这是临床前研究的宝贵工具，并将为人类翻译奠定基础。