mCAP: Enabling Technology for MRI Visible Polymers

描述（由申请人提供）： 由于缺乏安全且具有临床有用的MRI可见性的仪器，将MRI引导介入确立为临床实用的努力受到阻碍。我们建议引入并开发一种先进的微胶囊（mCAP）造影剂，该添加剂针对与医用级聚合物配合使用进行了优化，mCAP增强型聚合物将使MRI兼容器械在保持现有机械和制造性能的同时，表现出临床相关的MRI可见性。虽然所提出的使能技术适用于许多设备，但该拨款申请主要集中在开发MR可见血管导管上。这将通过以下方式实现： 1)确定基础材料和封装程序：建立可行性和设定性能基线。 2)探索材料配方和聚合物加工的变化，以： 1.展示优化性能的能力。 B）确定深入第二阶段开发的途径。 3)最后，构建并测试了三（3）种不同的原型器械，以证明： a）mCAP与一系列聚合物的相容性。 B）现代MR成像序列的直接MR可见性。 对每个原型的机械性能和图像性能进行量化。将结果与定量标准进行比较，以建立概念验证。如果成功，mCAP增强聚合物应具有广泛的适用性，并有助于采用微创，MRI引导的干预措施。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Efforts to establish MRI guided intervention as clinically practical are hampered by a lack instruments that are safe and exhibit clinically useful MRI visibility. We propose to introduce and develop an advanced class of microcapsule (mCAP) contrast additives optimized for use with medical grade polymers, mCAP enhanced polymers will allow MRI compliant instruments exhibit clinically relevant MRI visibility while retaining existing mechanical and manufacture properties. Although the proposed enabling technology is applicable to many devices, this grant application focuses primarily upon developing MR-visible vascular catheters. This will be accomplished by: 1) Identifying base materials and encapsulation procedures to: establish feasibility and set performance baseline. 2) Explore variations in material formulations and polymer processing to: a) Demonstrate ability to optimize performance. b) Identify paths for in depth Phase II development. 3) Lastly, three (3) different prototypes devices are constructed and tested to demonstrate: a) mCAP compatibility with a range of polymers. b) Direct MR visibility with contemporary MR imaging sequences. Mechanical properties and image performance are quantified for each prototype. Results are compared with quantitative criteria to establish proof-of-concept. If successful, mCAP enhanced polymers should enjoy broad applicability and contribute to the adoption of minimally invasive, MRI guided interventions.