Development of coil technologies for 3T and 7T MRI of the spinal cord

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Spinal cord injury (SCI) is a severe cause of morbidity that affects 86,000 of Canadians. Although there is no cure to SCI, several therapeutic approaches exist. However, their efficacy strongly depends on the damage to the spinal cord, such as the size of the lesion and the number and type of white matter pathways that have degenerated. Hence, it is crucial to be able to assess spinal cord damage with great sensitivity and accuracy for improving diagnosis and for following structural changes to the spinal cord while testing new drugs. Recent advances in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) have shown the possibility to assess structural damage to the spinal white matter pathways, via the use of semi-quantitative metrics such as diffusion tensor imaging and magnetization transfer. However, these techniques are currently limited by the poor sensitivity (i.e. low signal) and the presence of artifacts (such as image distortion). To overcome these challenges, we propose to use (i) advanced phased-array coil technology to improve the sensitivity of signal reception and minimize susceptibility artifacts via the use of parallel imaging and (ii) ultra-high field MRI (7 tesla) to further increase sensitivity and enable higher spatial resolution for detecting subtle abnormalities. The objective of this proposal is therefore to characterize the damage in SCI with MRI of the spinal cord via the development of new coil technologies for 3 tesla (T) and 7T MRI. We will start by developing coils for small animals (rats), then validating the MRI metrics in a model of SCI using a 7T MRI. Upon validation of these metrics, we will develop new coils for 3T and 7T human MRI systems and apply these developments to people suffering from SCI. We anticipate that these developments will improve the diagnosis and prognosis of people suffering from spinal cord trauma and, more generally, the new technology can be applied to any pathology affecting the spinal cord, including multiple sclerosis and tumors.