A Portable MR Sensor for Rapid Discrimination of Ex Vivo Breast Cancerous Tissue in Mice

Abstract

The conventional diagnosis examination for cancerous tissue relies on the cumbersome and time-consuming pathologic section technology. In this article, we propose a 1-T portable magnetic resonance (MR) sensor equipped with a 3-mm probe, which enabled the rapid discrimination of ex vivo breast cancerous tissue in mice based on the MR longitudinal relaxation time ( <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${T}_{{1}}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> ) measurement approach. First, the excellent distinction ability between ex vivo breast cancerous tissue and normal tissue using the proposed 1-T portable MR sensor is demonstrated. The <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${T}_{{1}}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> contrast (i.e., <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${T}_{\text {1cancerous}}/{T}_{\text {1normal}})$ </tex-math></inline-formula> is also compared with the other magnetic field strength MR systems, i.e., 0.23, 0.51, and 1.41 T. The results show that the average values of <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${T}_{{1}}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> contrast at different MR measurement systems are all about 1.41. Then, the potential of the proposed 1-T MR sensor is validated in terms of sensitivity and portability. Finally, the limitations and future work of this preliminary study are discussed. Taken together, the proposed 1-T portable MR sensor with the <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${T}_{{1}}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> value measurement approach has the promise to provide a low-cost, rapid, and accurate means for clinical assessment of the properties of tissue specimens, especially the trace tissue specimen taken from biopsy techniques.