Piezoelectric Biomagnetic Sensor for Noninvasive Liver Iron Assessment

 描述(申请人提供)：铁超载影响美国和世界各地许多人的生活。肝脏铁浓度是体内铁水平的直接指标。在各种非侵入性方法中，生物磁学肝磁法(BLS)已被证明是唯一能直接测定肝脏铁储备的方法。然而，BLS需要昂贵的(~100万)和复杂的(~4K，液氦)SQUID磁强计，这限制了该技术的临床应用。本项目的目标是开发一种新型的超灵敏压电式磁极化率测量仪，用于无创检测肝铁。在众多传感器中，压电式传感器具有超高灵敏度、低成本、工作可靠等特点。然而，这些材料与磁场的耦合非常弱，阻碍了它们被用于磁场传感。多铁性材料，特别是磁电复合材料的最新进展，为发展用于磁场传感的压电式传感器创造了独特的机会。该计划将为BLS开发室温操作、低成本、紧凑、坚固、超灵敏的磁性传感器。在我们的初步研究中，我们还开发了一种带有一阶梯度计的ME传感器，并在没有任何磁屏蔽的环境中，使用铁浓度从正常(0.05mgFe/gliver)到严重过量(5mgFe/gliver)的人肝大小体模来表征其灵敏度。这些结果为基于ME的BLS用于肝铁定量的可行性提供了汇编证据。在目标1中，我们将开发、表征和校准基于单元素ME的BLS。在目标2中，我们将利用其紧凑的尺寸开发一种基于ME的阵列BLS。阵列BLS将能够表征肝脏铁浓度分布，这将允许减少并发症(例如，肝硬变和纤维化)的混淆。该计划中将要开发的BLS技术既是“常规的”，也是“颠覆性的”。它是常规的，因为该技术将采用基于SQUID的盲源定位原理，该原理已被证明在量化LIC方面是有效的。这是颠覆性的，因为这项技术可以在成本和尺寸上取得突破，这最终将使我们能够在未来的RO1应用中开发便携式医生办公室或患者床边BLS设备。

 DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Iron overload affects life of many people in the US and around world. Liver iron concentration provides a direct indication of body iron level. Among various noninvasive methods, Biomagnetic liver susceptometry (BLS) has been proven to provide the only direct means of determining hepatic iron stores. However, BLS requires cost- prohibitive (~ 1 million) and complex (~ 4 K, liquid helium) SQUID magnetometer, which limit the clinic adoption of this technology. The objective of this program is to develop a novel ultra-sensitive piezoelectric magnetic susceptometer for noninvasive liver iron assessment. Among various sensors, piezoelectric sensors offer many attractive features such as ultra-high sensitivity, low cost, and robust operation. However, very weak coupling of these materials to magnetic fields prevent them from been used for magnetic field sensing. Recent advances in the multiferroic materials, especially, the magnetoelectric (ME) composites, create unique opportunity for developing piezoelectric sensors for magnetic field sensing. This program will develop room- temperature-operated, low-cost, compact-size, robust, ultrasensitive magnetic sensors for BLS. In our preliminary study, we also developed a ME sensor with first-order gradiometer and characterized its sensitivity using human-liver size phantom with iron concentration from normal (0.05 mgFe/gliver) to severely overdose (5 mgFe/gliver) in an environment without any magnetic shielding. These results provide compiling evidence for feasibility of the ME-based BLS for liver iron quantification. In Aim 1, we will develop, characterize, and calibrate single element ME-based BLS. In Aim 2, we will develop an array ME-based BLS taking advantage of its compact size. Array BLS will enable characterization of liver iron concentration distribution which would allow for reduction of confounds of comorbid pathologies (e.g. cirrhosis and fibrosis). The BLS technology to be developed in this program is both "conventional" and "disruptive". It is conventional because this technology will adopt the principle of SQUID-base BLS which has been proven to be effective in quantifying LIC. It is disruptive because the technology can lead to breakthroughs in cost and size, which would ultimately allow us to develop a portable Doctor's office or patient bed-side BLS device in the future RO1 applications.