MICA: Ultra-High Field MRI: Advancing Clinical Neuroscientific Research in Experimental Medicine

磁共振成像(MRI)是一种医学成像技术，它可以让我们看到身体内部的详细结构，并测量身体的化学环境。它在医院和医学研究中得到了广泛的使用，作为一种检查全身的方法，但它特别适合于可视化大脑结构和功能。没有其他成像技术像核磁共振那样提供关于大脑的信息。许多影响大脑的疾病人们知之甚少；由于其根本原因尚不清楚，良好的治疗方法往往仍然难以捉摸。我们建议在新建和扩建的卡迪夫大学脑研究成像中心(Cubric)内安装一个新的7特斯拉MRI系统，这是MRC在本申请中提出的要求。这一先进的磁共振成像系统将与其他大脑成像系统一起，为显微组织结构和大脑的电活动量身定做，使新Cubric内部的成像设备组合在欧洲独一无二。Cubric还将有一个诊所，在那里可以测试新的治疗方法，大脑对这些治疗的反应方式将使用大脑扫描仪进行测量。使用7T MRI系统，我们将调查大脑疾病的原因和治疗方法，包括精神分裂症等精神疾病，痴呆症、帕金森氏病和亨廷顿病等神经退行性疾病，多发性硬化症等神经炎性疾病，以及高血压(高血压)等可能导致大脑损害的疾病。为了更好地了解这些情况，我们还需要详细研究不同年龄段的健康大脑，从年轻到年老。卡迪夫提议的研究的一个特别优势将是将与大脑疾病相关的遗传因素的发现与使用7T磁共振系统对大脑结构和功能进行的详细评估联系起来。这将使我们更清楚地了解潜在的疾病机制，进而提出可以尝试的新疗法。7T核磁共振还将为我们提供灵敏的方法来衡量新的治疗方法是否有效，从而帮助我们加快药物和干预措施的开发，以促进大脑自身修复。核磁共振仪的主要部件是病人所在的超导磁体。从核磁共振一开始，就有一种趋势，即使用更强大的磁铁来产生更强的磁场(以特斯拉或T为单位)。医院的核磁共振系统通常使用1.5T磁铁，而3T磁铁最常用于人脑研究。目前英国只有两个使用7T磁铁的核磁共振系统，一个在诺丁汉大学，另一个在牛津大学。卡迪夫提出的7T磁共振成像旨在利用这种更高磁场强度的好处来开发治疗方法，并促进患者的早期和更精细的诊断。MRI中更高的磁场强度为大脑研究带来了强大的好处，包括：1.增加信号，以便我们可以加快一些成像方法；2.更高分辨率的图像，使我们能够看到大脑内更精细的细节；3.更灵敏地检测大脑中自然发生的化学物质，当大脑发生故障时，这些化学物质可能会失衡；4.使用一种名为功能性MRI5的技术来检测大脑活动的变化的能力大大增强。更好地测量流向脑组织的血流量的能力。新的图像对比度形式，为我们提供了关于大脑内部微观结构的以前未见过的信息。将这些7T磁共振技术的进步结合在一起，将使我们对人类大脑的结构和功能有一个更完整的窗口。在卡迪夫安装7T MRI将扩大英国在高级神经成像方面的专业知识。加的夫将在一个名为UK7T的新网络中与其他英国中心密切合作，以最大限度地提高这些脑成像技术投资对医疗保健和英国行业的好处。

Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) is a medical imaging technique that allows us to see detailed structure within the body and to measure the body's chemical environment. It has gained widespread use in hospitals and in medical research as a way of examining the whole body but it is particularly suited to visualizing brain structure and function. No other imaging technique gives as much information about the brain as MRI.Many diseases affecting the brain are poorly understood; with their root cause unknown, good treatments often remain elusive. We propose to install a new 7 Tesla MRI system, requested in this application from the MRC, within the newly rebuilt and expanded Cardiff University Brain Research Imaging Centre (CUBRIC). This advanced MRI system would sit in alongside other brain imaging systems tailored to imaging microscopic tissue structure and the brain's electrical activity, making the combination of imaging equipment within the new CUBRIC unique in Europe. CUBRIC will also have a clinic in which new treatments can be tested and the way that the brain responds to these treatments will be measured using the brain scanners. Using the 7T MRI system we will investigate the causes and treatments of brain conditions including psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia, neurodegenerative conditions such as dementia, Parkinson's disease and Huntington's disease, neuroinflammatory conditions such as multiple sclerosis and conditions that can cause damage to the brain such as hypertension (high blood pressure). To understand better these conditions we will also need to study the healthy brain in detail across different age groups from young to old. A particular strength of Cardiff's proposed research will be in linking the discovery of genetic factors associated with brain disease to detailed assessments of brain structure and function made with the 7T MRI system. This will give us a clearer picture of underlying disease mechanisms that will in turn suggest new treatments that can be tried. 7T MRI will also give us sensitive ways of measuring whether a new treatment is working and so help us speed up the development of drugs and interventions to promote the brains own repair. The main component of an MRI machine is the superconducting magnet within which the patient lies. From the beginnings of MRI there has been a trend towards using more powerful magnets that generate a stronger magnetic field (measured in Tesla, or T). Hospital MRI systems typically use 1.5T magnets while 3T is most common for research into the human brain. There are currently only two MRI systems in the UK that use 7T magnets, one at the University of Nottingham and the other at the University of Oxford. Cardiff's proposal for 7T MRI aims to use the benefits of this higher field strength to develop treatments and promote early and more refined diagnosis in patients. Higher magnetic field strengths in MRI bring strong benefits to brain research including:1. increased signal such that we can speed up some imaging methods,2. higher resolution images allowing us to see finer detail within the brain,3. more sensitivity to detect naturally occurring chemicals in the brain that may be imbalanced when the brain malfunctions,4. a much enhanced ability to detect changes in brain activity using a technique known as functional MRI5. the ability to better measure blood flow to brain tissue6. new forms of image contrast that give us previously unseen information about microscopic structure within the brain.Together these technical advances in the MRI at 7T will give us a more complete window on to human brain structure and function.The installation of 7T MRI in Cardiff would expand the UK's expertise in advanced neuroimaging. Cardiff would work closely with other UK centres in a new network known as UK7T to maximize the benefit to healthcare and UK industry of these investments in brain imaging technology.