一种可拆装式的脑外科手术用磁共振成像线圈

在临床磁共振成像(MRI)应用中,射频线圈的设计是非常关键的,针对不同的应用目的,合适的线圈能获得质量更好的图像. 有的应用需要线圈提供均匀性较好的射频场,而有的应用则需要线圈在特定区域内提供高的信噪比(SNR). 但是线圈很难同时得到好的射频场（B₁场）、空间均匀性和高的SNR,需要根据实际应用情况进行折衷设计. 针对MRI在脑外科手术中的应用特点,设计并制作了一种新颖的、适用于脑外科手术的MRI接收和发射共用射频线圈. 该线圈采用可分拆式结构,在脑外科手术支架上可以进行反复组装和拆卸,减少了MRI对医生手术的影响. 仿真结果和人体成像实验表明,该线圈能产生均匀的射频场、有较高的SNR和较大的成像范围,满足脑外科手术的需要.     

基于焦平面归一化响应特性的红外非均匀性校正

红外焦平面阵列的非均匀性噪音是制约红外成像质量的主要因素,非均匀性校正是红外焦平面器件应用的一个关键技术.本文提出了一种基于焦平面归一化响应特性且易于实现的非均匀性校正算法,并基于像元分布的卡方直方图提出一种新的图像非均匀性评估方法,即校正比例.该方法的校正输出考虑了每个像元的观测值与焦平面的响应信号的平均值,校正参量通过将像元的输出与其理想校正结果之间的偏差用焦平面响应的平均值建立联系而计算得到.提出的校正比例兼顾考虑了焦平面响应的时间与空间特性,比现有的图像非均匀性评估方法更能合理衡量焦平面的非均匀性程度.多种非均匀性校正的评价数据以及实验结果表明,该算法的校正效果优于两点校正法与原值拟合二阶校正法,并对于响应异常的像元具有较强的校正能力.此外其校正准确度高,所需参量少,易于实时处理,具有较强的实用价值.     

温敏性磁共振成像造影剂的研究进展

磁共振成像（MRI）技术可实现对温度的非侵入式检测．温敏性MRI造影剂能够对温度变化做出响应,进而导致与其结合的水质子的弛豫速率、信号强度或化学位移等磁共振参数发生显著改变,已作为将温度信号转化为磁共振信号的传感器广泛应用于MRI测温技术中．本文介绍了温敏性MRI造影剂的种类、原理、研究现状及其应用前景．     

基于非局部均值滤波与时域高通滤波的非均匀性校正算法

时域高通滤波非均匀性校正是一种典型的基于场景的红外焦平面阵列非均匀性校正算法,但其易产生"鬼影"现象,影响校正效果.本文在时域高通滤波校正算法的原理基础上,分析了其校正过程中"鬼影"现象产生的原因,即由于全部图像信息的叠加而导致静止场景被滤除且运动场景会在当前位置留下反转的图像,从而形成"鬼影".引入非局部均值滤波方法,提出了一种去"鬼影"的非局部均值滤波-时域高通滤波非均匀性校正方法.该方法首先采用非局部均值滤波将图像信息分离成高低频两部分(其中高频成分含有大部分噪音及非均匀性),并使用高频成分进行时域高通滤波算法中低通输出的递归运算,使得低通滤波后的图像含有较少的场景信息,从而可使校正输出图像含有较少的"鬼影"现象.采用两组真实红外序列图像进行验证,结果表明该算法不仅能获得较好的非均匀性校正效果,而且能较好地抑制时域高通滤波算法中的"鬼影"现象.     

基于干扰对消的红外焦平面非均匀性校正算法

红外焦平面器件的非均匀性产生机理复杂,难以准确拟合探测元响应曲线。提出了一种基于相关干扰抵消的非均匀性校正算法,以预先采集到的一帧黑体面源图像做为自适应干扰对消器的参考输入图像,自适应滤波器由参考输入图像迭代计算出待校正红外图像的空间噪声的最佳估计,实现从空间噪声中提取真实图像信号。自适应滤波算法采用变步长最小均方误差算法,减少了算法的运算量,提高了算法的收敛速度。理论分析以及针对实际红外图像的仿真结果表明,提出的算法校正效果好,收敛速度快,更易于工程实现。     

刀锋伪影校正技术在精神疾病患者海马MRI检查中的应用

为探讨磁共振刀锋伪影校正（BLADE）技术提升精神疾病患者海马磁共振图像质量的效果，本文分别使用结合了BLADE技术的BLADE T₂WI TSE、BLADE T₂WI FLAIR及传统T₂WI TSE、T₂WI FLAIR四种序列，对47例精神疾病患者和美国放射学院（ACR）标准模体在3.0 T磁共振成像（MRI）设备上分别进行常规海马斜冠状位扫描和ACR标准检测.患者的磁共振图像由2名放射科医师采用5分法对运动伪影、搏动伪影、颗粒度、海马磁共振图像质量进行评价，并应用Wilcoxon符号秩检验进行数据分析.模体图像通过识别图像的钻孔阵列和轮辐的数目，半定量评价各序列的高对比空间分辨力（HCSR）和低对比物体探测能力（LCD）.结果表明相比传统序列，结合BLADE技术的序列能够明显改善海马磁共振图像的运动伪影、搏动伪影（p<0.001），提高图像质量（p<0.05）；但在图像颗粒度方面，传统序列表现更优（p<0.001）.ACR模体半定量分析显示，结合BLADE技术序列与传统序列相比，在LCD检测方面结果更优、在HCSR检测方面结果相同或略逊.本文推荐将BLADE技术应用于不合作的精神疾病患者海马的MRI检查.     

14T MRI大口径全身自屏蔽超导磁体的一种优化设计方法

磁共振成像(MRI)的磁体设计首先是确保中心成像区的场值和均匀性, 二是尽可能减少场值耗散的距离即漏磁5Gs 线. 基于此本文提出了一种线性与非线性规划联合优化的方法. 首先将导体作为基本单元, 在预布置线圈的空间范围内构建二维连续导体网格. 通过线性规划搜索满足磁场约束条件的网格电流分布图. 再将存在电流的网格离散为一个个矩形线圈区域, 在保证场值均匀性、 杂散场5 Gs 线范围以及线圈位置间隔、 导体超导线安全裕度的前提下利用非线性规划, 具体确定各个线圈的轴向和径向位置、 线圈内导体层数和各层匝数以及通电流大小等. 采用这种联合优化方法, 不仅节省优化时间, 还可以自行设计线圈形状有利于工程实现. 文中由此方法给出了14 T MRI 磁体的一种设计方案, 依靠4 组线圈使得45 cm 中心球形成像内不均匀度降低到5 ppm, 而高场耗散的5 Gs 线通过磁体自屏蔽减小到15 m 以内. 满足了设计的要求.     

一种适用于红外搜索跟踪系统的实时非均匀性校正算法

针对目前红外搜索系统实用性较强的两点非均匀性校正存在难以实时跟踪图像非均匀的不足点,提出一种新的基于两点非均匀性校正和基于场景的实时联合校正算法。该算法利用两点校正提供基础校正系数,并充分利用红外搜索系统大数据量的特点,对实时数据量进行统计、分析,进而找出系统非均匀性随时间的漂移量,解决只采用两点校正算法带来的红外图像退化的问题。多次试验证明,采用联合非均匀校正算法的相对非均匀度由两点校正的5%降到了2%左右,并具有时间稳定性,获得了较好的校正效果。     

国产氧化钒红外探测器新型无挡板校正方法

现有国产氧化钒非制冷红外探测器多采用挡板校正进行非均匀性校正,导致结构复杂与图像中断,从而影响探测器的正常使用.提出了一种新型无挡板非均匀校正方法,首次结合基于定标校正与场景校正的非均匀校正方法,实现了对非制冷红外探测器的无挡板校正.实验结果表明,该方法能在开始校正后快速实现非均匀校正,校正效果良好,并且不存在传统场景...     

提高B_1场效率和信噪比的7.0 T MRI磁感应透镜研究

设计了一种可用于超高场磁共振成像(MRI)的负磁导率超材料磁感应透镜(MIL),可以有效提高MRI的信噪比.MIL是由6×6个加载电容的金属开口谐振环组成的二维周期结构,并将其加工在一层0.6 mm厚度的FR-4介质基板上.将MIL放置于射频线圈和样品之间,能够实现等效的磁表面等离激元效应.MIL单元电磁场分布、散射参数和等效磁导率的仿真结果表明:所设计的MIL在拉莫尔进动频率297.2 MHz产生负的磁导率,并能增强由射频线圈产生的射频场的倏逝波分量.两个不同的标准表面射频线圈的MRI扫描实验表明,小水膜仿体在施加MIL后可以将矢状面图像信噪比提高约200%,大水膜仿体在施加MIL后可以将冠状面图像信噪比提高约58%.仿真和MRI图像结果均表明了所设计的MIL具有聚焦表面射频线圈磁场强度的能力,有益于提高MRI的信噪比、空间分辨率和探测深度.     

Microimaging of hairless rat skin by magnetic resonance at 900 MHz

Purpose

Quantitative imaging of the rat skin was performed using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) at 900 MHz.

Materials and methods

A number of imaging techniques utilized for multiple contrast included magnetization transfer contrast, spin-lattice relaxation constant (T1-weighting), combination of T2-weighting with magnetic field inhomogeneity (T2*-weighting), magnetization transfer weighting and diffusion tensor weighting. These were used to obtain 2D slices and 3D multislice-multiecho images with high magnetic resonance contrast. These 2D and 3D imaging techniques were combined to achieve high-resolution MRI.

Results

Oil–water phantom showed distinct fat-water contrast. The dermis and epidermis, including the stratum corneum remnants, of nude rat skin were distinct due to their proton magnetic resonance as a result of proton interactions with the skin interstitial tissue. Combined details obtained from high-resolution, high-quality ex vivo skin images with different multicontrast characteristics generated better differentiation of skin layers, sublayers and significant correlation (r²=0.4927 for MRI area, r²=0.3068 for histology area; P<.0148) of MR data with co-registered histological areas of the epidermis as well as the hair follicle.

Conclusion

The multiple contrast approach provided a noninvasive ex vivo MRI visualization with semi-quantitative assessment of the major skin structures including the stratum corneum remnants, epidermis, hair, papillary dermis, reticular dermis and hypodermis.     

Magnetic resonance imaging tracking of alginate beads used for drug delivery of growth factors at sites of cardiac damage

Alginate-based beads labeled with contrast agent and loaded with vascular growth hormones were used for site-specific chronic delivery of hormones at the site of myocardial damage in a porcine model. Position of the beads within the pericardium could be monitored by MRI for optimal hormone delivery due to the presence of contrast agent. The beads facilitate the slow release of cytochrome c, myoglobin and methemoglobin used as protein models of growth factors. This application allows for site-specific delivery of hormones while the incorporated contrast agent in the beads provides a tool for MRI tracking in chronic studies.     

Magnetic resonance imaging of mouse Ehrlich carcinoma growth inhibition by thiacarpine, an analogue of cytotoxic marine alkaloid polycarpine

The anticancer effect of thiacarpine, a synthetic analogue of the known cytotoxic alkaloid polycarpine isolated from the Pacific ascidian Polycarpa aurata, was investigated in vivo in experiments using mouse solid Ehrlich carcinoma tumor as the target. A high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technique using a MR tomograph "PharmaScan" US70/16 (Bruker, Ettlingen, Germany) was used for visualization and quantification of tumor size. Fluorescence microscopy and image analysis were applied to determine Ehrlich carcinoma cell chromatin condensing (apoptosis) and necrosis in Ehrlich carcinoma cells at the action of thiacarpine in in vitro experiments. The scan and size calculations of the tumor and some mouse organs were carried out during the experiments. Thiacarpine in a total dose of 100 mg/kg was found to exhibit the delay in growth of the mouse tumor. The antineoplastic effect of this compound was accompanied by an increase in the lifetime of experimental mice in comparison with the control group of animals. Our data show that the ability of thiacarpine to induce apoptosis in carcinoma cells may contribute to thiacarpine anticancer effects against mice solid Ehrlich carcinoma in vivo detected by MRI.     

Automatic correction of in-plane bulk motion artifacts in self-navigated radial MRI

Radial MRI is typically used for scans that are sensitive to unavoidable motion. While the translational motion artifact can be easily removed from the radial trajectory data by phase correction, correction of rotational motion still remains a challenge in radial MRI. We present a novel method to refocus the image corrupted by view-to-view motion in the view-interleaved radial MRI data. In this method, the error in rotational view angles was modeled as a polynomial function of the view order and the model parameters were estimated by minimizing the self-navigator image metrics such as image entropy, gradient entropy, normalized gradient squared and mean square difference. Translational motion correction was conducted by aligning the projection profiles. Simulation studies were conducted to demonstrate the robustness of both translational and rotational motion correction methods in different noise levels. The proposed method was successfully applied to correct for motion of healthy subjects. Substantial motion correction with relative error of less than 5% was achieved by using either first- or second-order model with the image metrics. This study demonstrates the potential of the method for motion-sensitive applications.     

Referenceless one-dimensional Nyquist ghost correction in multicoil single-shot spatiotemporally encoded MRI

Single-shot spatiotemporally encoded (SPEN) MRI is a novel fast imaging method capable of retaining the time efficiency of single-shot echo planar imaging (EPI) but with distortion artifacts significantly reduced. Akin to EPI, the phase inconsistencies between mismatched even and odd echoes also result in the so-called Nyquist ghosts. However, the characteristic of the SPEN signals provides the possibility of obtaining ghost-free images directly from even and odd echoes respectively, without acquiring additional reference scans. In this paper, a theoretical analysis of the Nyquist ghosts manifested in single-shot SPEN MRI is presented, a one-dimensional correction scheme is put forward capable of maintaining definition of image features without blurring when the phase inconsistency along SPEN encoding direction is negligible, and a technique is introduced for convenient and robust correction of data from multi-channel receiver coils. The effectiveness of the proposed processing pipeline is validated by a series of experiments conducted on simulation data, in vivo rats and healthy human brains. The robustness of the method is further verified by implementing distortion correction on ghost corrected data.     

Improvement of 3D acquisition and visualization in MRI.

Three-dimensional (3D) visualization techniques are becoming an ever more important aid in the interpretation of tomographic data. Up to now, however, they have not received widespread use in MRI, because both acquisition and visualization techniques have been inadequate. In this paper we describe new 3D acquisition techniques which can acquire up to 128 slices with a resolution of 256 x 256 pixels in from 8 to 20 min. These techniques produce 3D data sets with excellent contrast and few motion artifacts, which are very well suited for 3D visualization techniques. For the visualization we investigate several rendering techniques, describe some improvements and compare their results. We found that there is no single method which renders all objects equally well. We show which shading method is best suited for different objects and why the other methods fail. Our studies suggest that in a 3D view with several objects each object should be rendered with a separate shading method. In so doing, 3D views can be generated which look like the real human anatomy.     

High-resolution gadolinium-enhanced 3D MRA of the infrapopliteal arteries. Lessons for improving bolus-chase peripheral MRA

Peripheral magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) is growing in use. However, methods of performing peripheral MRA vary widely and continue to be optimized, especially for improvement in illustration of infrapopliteal arteries. The main purpose of this project was to identify imaging factors that can improve arterial visualization in the lower leg using bolus chase peripheral MRA. Eighteen healthy adults were imaged on a 1.5T MR scanner. The calf was imaged using conventional three-station bolus chase three-dimensional (3D) MRA, two dimensional (2D) time-of-flight (TOF) MRA and single-station Gadolinium (Gd)-enhanced 3D MRA. Observer comparisons of vessel visualization, signal to noise ratios (SNR), contrast to noise ratios (CNR) and spatial resolution comparisons were performed. Arterial SNR and CNR were similar for all three techniques. However, arterial visualization was dramatically improved on dedicated, arterial-phase Gd-enhanced 3D MRA compared with the multi-station bolus chase MRA and 2D TOF MRA. This improvement was related to optimization of Gd-enhanced 3D MRA parameters (fast injection rate of 2 mL/sec, high spatial resolution imaging, the use of dedicated phased array coils, elliptical centric k-space sampling and accurate arterial phase timing for image acquisition). The visualization of the infrapopliteal arteries can be substantially improved in bolus chase peripheral MRA if voxel size, contrast delivery, and central k-space data acquisition for arterial enhancement are optimized. Improvements in peripheral MRA should be directed at these parameters.     

MRISim:磁共振成像仿真实验软件包

本文基于数值计算模拟技术,开发了模拟磁共振成像（MRI）数据采集与图像重建的仿真软件包——MRISim.虚拟数据采集部分通过对设备硬件、样品（标样或人体部位）进行物理数学建模后,构建原始模拟信号,并填充k空间,然后再基于k空间数据实现磁共振图像重建.该软件可以通过参数的任意调节对影响磁共振图像质量的因素进行可视化分析,包括11种常见伪影的特征和成因分析.我们的研究表明应用该仿真软件可以弥补台式MRI扫描仪价格昂贵、实验时间长等不足之处,实现对相关科技人员的批量化、规模化的实践操作培训.     

Micrometer-sized iron oxide particle labeling of mesenchymal stem cells for magnetic resonance imaging-based monitoring of cartilage tissue engineering

Purpose

To examine mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) labeling with micrometer-sized iron oxide particles (MPIOs) for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-based tracking and its application to monitoring articular cartilage regeneration.

Methods

Rabbit MSCs were labeled using commercial MPIOs. In vitro MRI was performed with gradient echo (GRE) and spin echo (SE) sequences at 3T and quantitatively characterized using line profile and region of interest analysis. Ex vivo MRI of hydrogel-encapsulated labeled MSCs implanted within a bovine knee was performed with spoiled GRE (SPGR) and T_1ρ sequences. Fluorescence microscopy, labeling efficiency, and chondrogenesis of MPIO-labeled cells were also examined.

Results

MPIO labeling results in efficient contrast uptake and signal loss that can be visualized and quantitatively characterized via MRI. SPGR imaging of implanted cells results in ex vivo detection within native tissue, and T_1ρ imaging is unaffected by the presence of labeled cells immediately following implantation. MPIO labeling does not affect quantitative glycosaminoglycan production during chondrogenesis, but iron aggregation hinders extracellular matrix visualization. This aggregation may result from excess unincorporated particles following labeling and is an issue that necessitates further investigation.

Conclusion

This study demonstrates the promise of MPIO labeling for monitoring cartilage regeneration and highlights its potential in the development of cell-based tissue engineering strategies.     

Initial clinical evaluation of gadolinium DTPA for contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging

Gadolinium DTPA was evaluated as an intravenous contrast agent for magnetic resonance imaging in 15 patients with primary or secondary intracranial neoplastic disease. T1 and T2 weighted images were obtained prior to contrast administration. T1 weighted spin echo 35/800 (TE/TR) images were utilized to detect enhancement. The increase in signal intensity observed, identifying areas of breakdown of the blood-brain barrier (BBB), was similar in magnitude to the contrast enhancement observed on CT. This permitted differentiation of neoplastic tissue from surrounding cerebral edema on MRI. Direct visualization of otherwise "isomagnetic" lesions was also demonstrated. The use of intravenous contrast media should significantly extend the diagnostic potential and specificity of magnetic resonance imaging.