3T MRI for Clinical and Translational Imaging

描述(由申请人提供)：此重新提交的申请申请资金，以支持购买3特斯拉西门子Magnetom“Skyra”核磁共振系统在阿蒂努拉A.马蒂诺斯生物医学成像中心。拟议中的仪器将升级马蒂诺斯中心现有的已有11年历史的1.5Tesla西门子Avanto扫描仪，将专门用于全身人类MRI研究，并将支持马萨诸塞州总医院和邻近机构临床/翻译研究人员社区的庞大且不断增长的资助研究。对拟议的3T核磁共振系统的需求有许多方面。首先，现有的1.5T扫描仪不再提供推动我们调查人员研究更上一层楼的技术优势。更高的场强提供更好的图像质量，对大脑结构或功能的细微差异更敏感，这些细微差异可能是显著的生理和病理差异的特征。认识到3T扫描相对于1.5T扫描的好处，我们社区内的临床/翻译研究人员越来越多地将他们的研究过渡到3T扫描。然而，随着他们的人数和研究的增加，该中心适应需求的能力也越来越受到挑战。虽然Martinos中心非常幸运地在现场拥有几个专门从事研究的3T MRI系统，但每个系统都有明确的研究任务，包括开发高N RF阵列线圈和梯度技术(分别为3号舱和4号舱)。由于正在进行的技术开发工作意味着这些系统经常进行硬件修改，它们不能提供支持纵向临床研究所需的稳定性。因此，广泛地说，临床和转化性研究受到各种因素的阻碍，包括可用扫描时间不足，纵向临床研究的不稳定。拟议的工具不仅将增强临床/翻译研究人员进行当前研究的能力，还将为富有成效的新项目和合作提供机会。随着拟议仪器对患者友好的成像环境应用于这些项目，我们预计，从事基于MRI的主要人类疾病研究的广泛和活跃的临床/翻译科学家社区将准备找到与许多神经和精神疾病相关的令人兴奋的新诊断和治疗应用。 与公共卫生相关：核磁共振等成像技术使临床研究能够更好地描述人类疾病的特征，从而为开发更好的治疗方法提供信息。为患者友好操作而设计的新一代技术在图像质量方面提供了显著的改进，以更好地检测可能区分健康和疾病的生理细微差别，并反过来促进对人类疾病的理解，以优化患者护理。我们的目标是升级我们老化的面向临床的核磁共振扫描仪，以便利用核磁共振技术的关键前沿进步来支持马萨诸塞州总医院正在进行和正在开发的临床研究领域。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This resubmission application requests funding to support the purchase of a 3 Tesla Siemens MAGNETOM "Skyra" MRI system at the Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging. The proposed instrument, which will upgrade the Martinos Center's existing 11-year-old 1.5 Tesla Siemens Avanto scanner, will be dedicated for whole-body human MRI research and will support the funded research of a large and growing community of clinical/translational investigators at the Massachusetts General Hospital and neighboring institutions. The need for the proposed 3T MRI system has a number of facets. First, the existing 1.5T scanner no longer provides the technological edge to drive our investigators' research to the next level. Higher field strength provides better image quality, and greater sensitivity to the subtle differences in brain structure or function that may characterize significant physiological and pathological differences. In recognition of the benefits of scanning at 3T versus 1.5T, the clinical/translational investigators within our community have increasingly transition their studies to 3T. However, as their numbers and their research grow, the Center's ability to accommodate demand is also increasingly challenged. Although the Martinos Center has the great fortunate of having several research-dedicated 3T MRI systems already on site, each has a specific defined research mission that includes development of high-N RF array coils and gradient technologies (Bays 3 and 4, respectively). Because the ongoing technology development work means these systems often undergo hardware modifications, they do not offer the stability needed to support longitudinal clinical research. As a result, broadly, clinical and translational research studies are hindered by a variety of factors that include a shortage of available scan time, instability for longitudinal clinical studies. The proposed instrument will not only enhance the ability of clinical/translational investigators to conduct their current research, it will also provide opportunities for fruitful new projects and collaborations. With the patient-friendly imaging environment of the proposed instrument brought to bear on these projects, we anticipate that the broad and active growing community of clinical/translational scientists engaged in MRI-based studies of major human disorders will be poised to find exciting new diagnostic and therapeutic applications relevant to a many neurological and psychiatric diseases. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Imaging technologies such as MRI have enabled clinical investigations to better characterize human disease and, thus, inform the development of more improved treatment. Newer-generation technologies designed for patient-friendly operation offer dramatic improvements in image quality to better detect the physiological subtleties that may differentiate health from disease, and in turn advance understanding of human disease to optimize patient care. We purpose to upgrade our aging clinically oriented MRI scanner in order to leverage critical cutting-edge advances in MRI technology to support ongoing and developing areas of clinical research at the Massachusetts General Hospital.