A Low-Cost Cryosusceptometer

描述（由申请人提供）： 临床上迫切需要一种安全、准确和容易获得的非侵入性测量身体铁储存的方法。唯一经过临床验证的非侵入性测量仪器是基于超导性的磁流变仪，但其复杂性，成本（约1，000，000美元）和对液氦的要求限制了其在少数研究中心的使用。由于二十多年来没有简化或降低成本，人们普遍认为基于超导的电阻率测量不太可能进入一般临床实践。 使用集成系统的方法，复杂性/成本问题最近已在NIDDK支持的BRP计划中得到解决。这使得设计大大简化了仪器和测量程序。它还将系统成本降低了十倍以上，同时保持了超导仪器的固有精度。 新设备仍然需要冷冻剂（液氮），必须定期补充。SBIR第一阶段的目标是利用低温制冷机技术的最新进展，以消除临床实施的最后障碍。简单的低成本低温电阻率计将迅速满足铁的压力评估需求，并在医学和工业中开辟超导电阻率测量的许多其他应用。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): There is a pressing clinical need for a non-invasive measure of body iron stores that is safe, accurate, and readily available. The only instrument that is clinically validated for non-invasive measurement is a magnetic susceptometer based on superconductivity, but its complexity, cost (approximately $1,000,000), and requirement for liquid helium have restricted its use to a handful of research centers. Since no simplification or cost reduction has occurred for over two decades, it has been widely assumed that superconductivity-based susceptometry is unlikely to enter general clinical practice. Using an integrated systems approach, the complexity/cost issue has recently been addressed in a BRP program supported by the NIDDK. This has resulted in a design that significantly simplifies both the instrument and the measurement procedure. It also reduces the system cost by over a factor of ten, while retaining the intrinsic accuracy of superconducting instrumentation. The new device still requires a cryogen (liquid nitrogen) that must be regularly replenished. The goal in Phase I of this SBIR is to exploit recent advances in cryocooler technology so as to remove this final barrier to clinical implementation. Simple low-cost cryosusceptometers would rapidly satisfy the pressing iron assessment need and open up many other applications for superconducting susceptometry, in both medicine and industry.