ADVANCED IMAGING RESEARCH, INC. — Department of Health and Human Services SBIR Phase I: 101

Description

Magnetic resonance imagingMRIis a safenon ionizing diagnostic toolThe overall goal of this project is to arrive very close to the ultimate intrinsic signal to noise ratioUISNRfor a given MRI magnet field strength by combining innovations in very advanced transceiver technologyIn Phase Ia high performance head RF coil receiver array will be prototyped and SNR performance compared to an existing commercial productEmphasis in Phase II will be towards Phase I coil optimizationmechanical housing design followed by systematic phantom validationMRI is the preferred method for examining soft tissue structuresHowever MRI signals are weak due to the small difference in energy levels population of parallel and anti parallel spinsppm atTthat contribute to the signalClinical MRI exams demand high resolution and or fast scanningSince SNR is the main limitation on fulfilling these requirementsit is the most important parameter of MRI systemsMRI SNR can be increased by signal averaging at the expense of lengthy scan timesPursuit of higher SNR on one hand has resulted in a shift toward the use of higher static magnetic fields which is expensive and has siting and safety issuesOn the other handwe are rapidly approaching limitations in MRI systems with greater number of receiver channelsWe propose novel innovations to optimize MRI SNR for a given magnet field strengthGenerally SNR can be increased by increasing the signal strength or by reducing noiseWe propose novel combinations to achieve maximumnear ultimate intrinsic MRI SNR by efficiently accomplishing bothThe technology proposed has broad applications within and outside of MRIA successful project will improve the MR image quality in shorter scan times thereby alleviating burden on high costhigh magnet field based MRI systemsThe work proposed is original MRI is a safenon invasive diagnostic imaging tool and can be used to obtain detailed anatomicalvascularbiochemical and functional information from the brainspineheartmajor organs such as liverkidney etcincluding bones and jointsBut effective diagnosis depends on the quality of the MR imagewhich can be improved by going to high magnet field strengths or by increasing the number of receiver channelsboth are expensive and are approaching their limitsWe propose to use supplementary technologies aimed at maximizing MRI image quality with the intention of alleviating the burden placed on high costhigh magnet field based MRI systems