Speaker:  Matthew Rosen

Harvard University

High-performance millitesla MRI: brain imaging & i n vivo DNP

Abstract:

 
Traumatic brain injury (TBI) accounts for a large fraction of warfighter casualties and injuries, and it is vital that the diagnostic tools critical for early intervention are readily available near the point of injury. For the brain, MRI provides the undisputed standard of care for the diagnosis and monitoring of neurological disorders and injuries including TBI. Conventional MRI is not widely deployabl e because high-strength magnetic fields (of order 1 T) are necessary to obtain useful brain images, and such high magnetic fields involve large, heavy, fragile, and expensive equipment (such as superconducting magnets) that is incompatible with operation in field hospitals and other forward sites.
 
We have been leading a research effort to develop tools and techniques for low-magnetic-field implementations of MRI focused on brain imaging. This work rethinks conventional approaches to MRI scanner construction, and t hus far has shown potential to create transformative low-field deployable MRI scanners with high diagnostic impact and low power and siting requirements. We contend that non-cryogenic non-field-cycled low-magnetic-field implementations of MRI can be develop ed to allow robust, transportable imaging modalities well suited to diagnose the types of injuries prevalent in TBI.
 
This talk will focus on our most recent results in high performance millitesla brain MRI, including new opportunities provided by free-radical in jury markers paired with in vivo Overhauser DNP at low magnetic field.