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Christian Sprang^1,2, Pedram Yazdanbakhsh^1,3, Marcus Couch⁴, Sajjad Feizollah^1,3, Christine Tardif^1,2,3, and David A Rudko^1,2,3
1McConnell Brain Imaging Centre, Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital, Montreal, QC, Canada, ²Department of Biomedical Engineering, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada, ³Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada, ⁴Siemens Healthcare Limited, Montreal, QC, Canada

Keywords: System Imperfections: Measurement & Correction, RF Arrays & Systems

Ultra-high field MRI is particularly susceptible to dynamic magnetic field fluctuations. To address this, commercial field probes were integrated into an 8-channel dipole Tx/Rx 7 T pediatric head coil. Coil performance was assessed before and after probe integration. Probe performance was compared on and off the coil. After probe integration, reflection coefficients were maintained below -10dB in all channels, noise correlation was shown to improve, and maximum SNR was shown to decrease. Probe performance did not change substantially once mounted on the coil. Future work will aim to address the reduction in SNR observed after probe integration.

Courtney Bauer¹, Jue Hou¹, Chenhao Sun¹, and Steven M. Wright^1
1Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, United States

Keywords: RF Arrays & Systems, RF Arrays & Systems

Increased interest in simultaneous and interleaved MR imaging and spectroscopy has led to the increased interest in multi-tuned coils and coil arrays.  The introduction of single port, multinuclear coils resolves the complexity resulting from nested coils, but introduces new challenges in optimization of signal conditioning. Presented here is a channelization approach that enables frequency specific gain and filtering of signals from single port multinuclear coils.

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Roland Müller¹, Niklas Wallstein¹, André Pampel¹, and Harald E. Möller^1
1Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany

Keywords: Non-Array RF Coils, Antennas & Waveguides, Ex-Vivo Applications, Tiltable RF Coil, Radiation Damping

Radiation damping (RD) effects may confound experiments targeted at the quantification of MR contrast parameters, in particular, in experiments in small ex-vivo specimens performed with dedicated coils supporting a high filling factor. To address this problem, a long-known principle during reception with coil arrays (preamplifier decoupling) was also applied in the transmit branch of the TxRx switch. Furthermore, adding an extra λ/4 cable between coil and TxRx switch allows to switch between minimum and maximum RD with otherwise almost equal coil characteristics. This may be further exploited for for testing pulse sequences with regards to potential RD effects.

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Daniel Papoti^1,2, Diego Szczupak¹, David Schaeffer¹, and Afonso Silva^1
1Department of Neurobiology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, United States, ²Center for Engineering, Modeling and Applied Social Sciences, Federal University of ABC, Sao Bernardo do Campos, Brazil

Keywords: RF Arrays & Systems, RF Arrays & Systems, Receive Arrays

The present work describes the design characterization and tests of a 14-channel receive-only array for marmoset brain MRI at 9.4T. The coil was designed to maximize the SNR over the entire head of a common marmoset, considering the anesthesia apparatus, such as ear bars and anesthesia mask.

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Taewoo Nam¹, Yonghwa Jeong¹, Minyeong Seo², Eunwoo Lee³, Junseong Son³, Taekwan Lee⁴, Young Noh⁵, Donghyuk Kim², Daniel Hernandez², and Kyoung-Nam Kim^3
1Department of Health Sciences and Technology, GAIHST, Gachon University, Incheon, Korea, Republic of, ²Neuroscience Research Institute, Gachon University, Incheon, Korea, Republic of, ³Department of Biomedical Engineering, Gachon University, Incheon, Korea, Republic of, ⁴Brain Core Research Facility, Korea Brain Research Institute, Daegu, Korea, Republic of, ⁵Department of Neurology, Gill Medical Center, Gachon University College of Medicine, Incheon, Korea, Republic of

Keywords: RF Arrays & Systems, RF Arrays & Systems, Clip-path, Transceiver Array, Decoupling, MRI

We propose new geometrical decoupling method using clip-path conductor (CPC) to reduce the mutual coupling between individual elements in RF coil array. The 8-element CPC transceiver array was constructed based on electromagnetic (EM) simulation and applied to whole brain imaging at 7T.

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Aleksej Polpudenko¹, David Andrew Porter¹, and Shajan Gunamony^1,2
1Imaging Centre of Excellence, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, United Kingdom, ²MR CoilTech Limited, Glasgow, United Kingdom

Keywords: RF Arrays & Systems, Prostate

Prospective 8 channel (6Tx loop + 2Tx dipole) body array intended for prostate MRI at 7T was simulated and its B₁+ and SAR performance evaluated. The study demonstrated the capability of loop-based arrays to offer competitive levels of prostate imaging performance compared to current state-of-the-art hybrid and dipole arrays reported in the literature.

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Demetrius Eugene Lee, B.S.^1,2, Kristina Vineis, B.S.^1,2, Laiz Godoy, M.D.^1,2, Lisa Desiderio, RT (R)(MR)^1,2, Suyash Mohan, M.D.^1,2, and Sanjeev Chawla, Ph.D^1,2
1Radiology, Perelman School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA, United States, ²University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, United States

Keywords: Tumors, Blood vessels, Glioma

Evidence has shown that abnormal iron levels and gliomas are heavily correlated.  Due to this, iron presents a possibility to serve as a glioma biomarker.  This study will utilize susceptibility-weighted imaging (SWI) to identify the glioma, and quantitative susceptibility mapping (QSM) to explicitly classify iron deposits in the glioma on an ultra-high field (7T) scanner. 

A total of 6 untreated glioma patients with high- and low-grade gliomas underwent 7T QSM.  Patients with high-grade gliomas showed distinct, geometric iron deposits that low-grade gliomas did not.  These results illustrate that 7T QSM may be helpful in classifying low- and high-grade gliomas. 

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Sapir Fajerzstein^1,2,3, Moran Artzi^1,3,4, Deborah T. Blumenthal^4,5, Dror Limon^4,6, Orna Aizenstein⁷, Felix Bokestein^4,5, Netanell Avisdris¹, and Dafna Ben, Bashat^1,3,4
1Sagol Brain Institute, Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center (TASMC), Tel Aviv, Israel, ²The Iby and Aladar Fleischman Faculty of Engineering TAU, Tel Aviv, Israel, ³Sagol School of Neuroscience, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel, ⁴Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University (TAU), Tel Aviv, Israel, ⁵Division of Oncology, TASMC, Tel Aviv, Israel, ⁶Neuro-Oncology Service, TASMC, Tel Aviv, Israel, ⁷Division of Radiology, TASMC, Tel Aviv, Israel

Keywords: Tumors, DSC & DCE Perfusion

High grade glioma (HGG) and brain-metastasis are known to have different vascularity. Dynamic contrast-enhanced (DCE) was suggested to assess disease progression, and to differentiate between tumor recurrence and radiation necrosis. However, previous methods did not relate to the differences in vascularity of the two tumor types and often offer the same method and same threshold values. We show differences between groups with: higher vascularity, slightly increased permeability, higher percent of arteries overlapping of the tumor, and differences in several radiomics features, in recurrent HGG compared with recurrent brain-metastasis. Future studies should relate to these differences between the two tumor types.

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Gretel Sanabria Sanabria Diaz^1,2,3, Lester Melie-Garcia^1,2,3, Po-Jui Lu ^1,2,3, Muhamed Barakovic^1,2,3, Mario Alberto Ocampo Pineda^1,2,3, Xinjie Chen^1,2,3, Matthias Weigel^1,3,4, Nina Siebenborn^1,2,3, Esther Ruberte Jiménez^1,2,3, Alessandro Cagol^1,2,3, Riccardo Galbusera^1,2,3, Antoine Lutti⁵, Jens Kuhle^2,3, Ludwig Kappos^1,2,3, and Cristina Granziera ^1,2,3
1Translational Imaging in Neurology (ThINk) Basel, Department of Biomedical Engineering, University Hospital Basel and University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland, ²Department of Neurology, University Hospital Basel, Basel, Switzerland, ³Research Center for Clinical Neuroimmunology and Neuroscience Basel (RC2NB), University Hospital Basel and University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland, ⁴Division of Radiological Physics, Department of Radiology, University Hospital Basel, Basel, Switzerland, ⁵Laboratory for Research in Neuroimaging, Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Lausanne University Hospital and University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland

Keywords: Multiple Sclerosis, Multiple Sclerosis

Damage to the myelin sheath and the neuroaxonal unit are features of multiple sclerosis, as well as reparative processes for both. However, a detailed characterization of the dynamics of those in vivo is challenging. In this longitudinal study, we applied a multi-contrast quantitative MRI approach to disentangle lesion progression in vivo in patients with MS. The microstructural measures were compared between multiple sclerosis groups (55 relapsing-remitting, 24 progressive) and 34 healthy controls. Our results indicate changes in microstructural MRI measures in white matter lesions and normal appearing tissue related to myelin and axonal integrity in RRMS and PMS.

Yu-Shin Ding¹, Jiacheng Wang¹, Artem Mikheev¹, jingyun chen¹, and James Babb^1
1NYUSoM, New York, NY, United States

Keywords: Alzheimer's Disease, PET/MR

Although blacks are at 2-3 times higher prevalence rate of developing AD, blacks have been under-included in many prominent AD clinical trials. The current biomarker classification system (ATN) can’t explain the increased prevalence in blacks of both AD and vascular risk factors for AD such as diabetes and hypertension when compared to whites. Our decade-long PET/MR studies have demonstrated a special vulnerability of locus coeruleus (LC) to aging  and stress. Our recent study showed that a faster decline of LC function occurs in blacks. Thus, imaging LC represents a novel biomarker approach to mechanisms underlying health disparity for AD.

Joshua T. Hanson¹, James H. Holmes², Vincent A. Magnotta², and Curtis A. Corum^3
1Champaign Imaging LLC, Shoreview, MN, United States, ²Radiology, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, United States, ³Champaign imaging LLC, Shoreview, MN, United States

Keywords: Safety, Gradients, Acoustic Measurement, ZTE, 3D Radial, Silent

This abstract aims to provide a general method of measuring the acoustic noise produced by a scanning protocol and to present the acoustic differences in absolute sound pressure level. To demonstrate these methods we show results using conventional Cartesian and acoustically quieter ZTE based protocols on 3T and 7T systems.

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Felix Munoz¹, Krishna Nayak², and Yasser Khan^2
1Biomedical Engineering, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, United States, ²Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, United States

Keywords: New Devices, Low-Field MRI, Wearable Devices

Compatibility of Bluetooth low energy (BLE) wearable sensors in the MRI environment will enable the creative use of wearable devices to monitor vital signs such as heart rate, respiration rate, blood pressure, temperature, and biochemical markers during a scan. In this work, we demonstrate efficacy of BLE sensors at the novel 0.55T MRI field strength and evaluate the noise in a wearable caused by rapidly switching MRI gradients, as well as MRI noise/artifacts introduced by a BLE wearable.

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Dominic Harrison^1,2, Mary Neal^1,2, Kieren Hollingsworth^1,2, and Pete Thelwall^1,2
1Newcastle Magnetic Resonance Centre, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom, ²Translational and Clinical Research Institute, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom

Keywords: Lung, Non-Proton, 19F-MRI

We used ¹H test objects to assess the ability to detect and quantify lung ventilation defects using accelerated ¹⁹F-MRI ventilation scan protocols. The test objects replicated the spin density and relaxation properties of inhaled perfluoropropane gas and are constructed with signal voids of known dimensions to simulate ventilation defects. Scans were acquired on single- and multi-channel RF receiver arrays, with multiple compressed sensing and parallel imaging (CS/CS-PI) accelerations and scan resolutions at fixed scan duration and field-of-view (FOV). A negative relationship between acceleration and measured ventilation defect diameter was observed with increasing CS acceleration factor, but not for CS-PI scans.