Development of a novel mouth model as an alternative tool to test the effectiveness of an in vivo EPR dosimetry system.

In a large-scale radiation event, thousands may be exposed to unknown amounts of radiation, some of which may be life-threatening without immediate attention. In such situations, a method to quickly and reliably estimate dose would help medical responders triage victims to receive life-saving care. We developed such a method using electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) to make in vivo measurements of the maxillary incisors. This report provides evidence that the use of in vitro studies can provide data that are fully representative of the measurements made in vivo. This is necessary because, in order to systematically test and improve the reliability and accuracy of the dose estimates made with our EPR dosimetry system, it is important to conduct controlled studies in vitro using irradiated human teeth. Therefore, it is imperative to validate whether our in vitro models adequately simulate the measurements made in vivo, which are intended to help guide decisions on triage after a radiation event. Using a healthy volunteer with a dentition gap that allows using a partial denture, human teeth were serially irradiated in vitro and then, using a partial denture, placed in the volunteer's mouth for measurements. We compared dose estimates made using in vivo measurements made in the volunteer's mouth to measurements made on the same teeth in our complex mouth model that simulates electromagnetic and anatomic properties of the mouth. Our results demonstrate that this mouth model can be used in in vitro studies to develop the system because these measurements appropriately model in vivo conditions.

A semiflexible 64-channel receive-only phased array for pediatric body MRI at 3T.

PURPOSE: To design, construct, and validate a semiflexible 64-channel receive-only phased array for pediatric body MRI at 3T. METHODS: A 64-channel receive-only phased array was developed and constructed. The designed flexible coil can easily conform to different patient sizes with nonoverlapping coil elements in the transverse plane. It can cover a field of view of up to 44 × 28 cm(2) and removes the need for coil repositioning for body MRI patients with multiple clinical concerns. The 64-channel coil was compared with a 32-channel standard coil for signal-to-noise ratio and parallel imaging performances on different phantoms. With IRB approval and informed consent/assent, the designed coil was validated on 21 consecutive pediatric patients. RESULTS: The pediatric coil provided higher signal-to-noise ratio than the standard coil on different phantoms, with the averaged signal-to-noise ratio gain at least 23% over a depth of 7 cm along the cross-section of phantoms. It also achieved better parallel imaging performance under moderate acceleration factors. Good image quality (average score 4.6 out of 5) was achieved using the developed pediatric coil in the clinical studies. CONCLUSION: A 64-channel semiflexible receive-only phased array has been developed and validated to facilitate high quality pediatric body MRI at 3T. Magn Reson Med 76:1015-1021, 2016. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Clinical performance of contrast enhanced abdominal pediatric MRI with fast combined parallel imaging compressed sensing reconstruction.

PURPOSE: To deploy clinically, a combined parallel imaging compressed sensing method with coil compression that achieves a rapid image reconstruction, and assess its clinical performance in contrast-enhanced abdominal pediatric MRI. MATERIALS AND METHODS: With Institutional Review Board approval and informed patient consent/assent, 29 consecutive pediatric patients were recruited. Dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI was acquired on a 3 Tesla scanner using a dedicated 32-channel pediatric coil and a three-dimensional SPGR sequence, with pseudo-random undersampling at a high acceleration (R = 7.2). Undersampled data were reconstructed with three methods: a traditional parallel imaging method and a combined parallel imaging compressed sensing method with and without coil compression. The three sets of images were evaluated independently and blindly by two radiologists at one siting, for overall image quality and delineation of anatomical structures. Wilcoxon tests were performed to test the hypothesis that there was no significant difference in the evaluations, and interobserver agreement was analyzed. RESULTS: Fast reconstruction with coil compression did not deteriorate image quality. The mean score of structural delineation of the fast reconstruction was 4.1 on a 5-point scale, significantly better (P < 0.05) than traditional parallel imaging (mean score 3.1). Fair to substantial interobserver agreement was reached in structural delineation assessment. CONCLUSION: A fast combined parallel imaging compressed sensing method is feasible in a pediatric clinical setting. Preliminary results suggest it may improve structural delineation over parallel imaging.

Custom-fitted 16-channel bilateral breast coil for bidirectional parallel imaging.

A 16-channel receive-only, closely fitted array coil is described and tested in vivo for bilateral breast imaging at 3 T. The primary purpose of this coil is to provide high signal-to-noise ratio and parallel imaging acceleration in two directions for breast MRI. Circular coil elements (7.5-cm diameter) were placed on a closed "cup-shaped" platform, and nearest neighbor coils were decoupled through geometric overlap. Comparisons were made between the 16-channel custom coil and a commercially available 8-channel coil. SENSitivity Encoding (SENSE) parallel imaging noise amplification (g-factor) was evaluated in phantom scans. In healthy volunteers, we compared signal-to-noise ratio, parallel imaging in one and two directions, Autocalibrating Reconstruction for Cartesian sampling (ARC) g-factor, and high spatial resolution imaging. When compared with a commercially available 8-channel coil, the 16-channel custom coil shows 3.6× higher mean signal-to-noise ratio in the breast and higher quality accelerated images. In patients, the 16-channel custom coil has facilitated high-quality, high-resolution images with bidirectional acceleration of R = 6.3.

Multi-channel metabolic imaging, with SENSE reconstruction, of hyperpolarized [1-(13)C] pyruvate in a live rat at 3.0 tesla on a clinical MR scanner.

We report metabolic images of (13)C, following injection of a bolus of hyperpolarized [1-(13)C] pyruvate in a live rat. The data were acquired on a clinical scanner, using custom coils for volume transmission and array reception. Proton blocking of all carbon resonators enabled proton anatomic imaging with the system body coil, to allow for registration of anatomic and metabolic images, for which good correlation was achieved, with some anatomic features (kidney and heart) clearly visible in a carbon image, without reference to the corresponding proton image. Parallel imaging with sensitivity encoding was used to increase the spatial resolution in the SI direction of the rat. The signal to noise ratio in was in some instances unexpectedly high in the parallel images; variability of the polarization among different trials, plus partial volume effects, are noted as a possible cause of this.