Development, integration and use of an ultra-high-strength gradient system on a human-size 3 T magnet for small animal MRI.

Kuan-Hung Cho,Ruslan Garipov,Ching-Ping Chang,Richard P Buschbeck,Sheng-Min Huang,Li-Wei Kuo,Ezequiel Farrher,N Jon Shah,Chang-Hoon Choi,Hsu Chang,Hsuan-Han Chiang,Ming-Jye Chen,Quan Jiang

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0217916

Abstract

This study aims to integrate an ultra-high-strength gradient coil system on a clinical 3 T magnet and demonstrate its preclinical imaging capabilities. Dedicated phantoms were used to qualitatively and quantitatively assess the performance of the gradient system. Advanced MR imaging sequences, including diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and quantitative susceptibility mapping (QSM), were implemented and executed on an ex vivo specimen as well as in vivo rats. The DTI and QSM results on the phantom agreed well with those in the literature. Furthermore, studies on ex vivo specimens have demonstrated the applicability of DTI and QSM on our system to probe microstructural changes in a mild traumatic brain injury rat model. The feasibility of in vivo rat DTI was also demonstrated. We showed that the inserted ultra-high-strength gradient coil was successfully integrated on a clinically used magnet. After careful tuning and calibration, we verified the accuracy and quantitative preclinical imaging capability of the integrated system in phantom and in vivo rat brain experiments. This study can be essential to establish dedicated animal MRI platform on clinical MRI scanners and facilitate translational studies at clinical settings.

Highlights

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a powerful, non-invasive medical imaging modality for both clinical diagnosis and preclinical research
Studies on ex vivo specimens have demonstrated the applicability of diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and quantitative susceptibility mapping (QSM) on our system to probe microstructural changes in a mild traumatic brain injury rat model
A rat mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) model was used to evaluate the usability of this system by considering both DTI and QSM, which demand high gradient performance and signal phase stability, and the results showed the integrity of altered white matter in the callosal regions

Summary

Introduction

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a powerful, non-invasive medical imaging modality for both clinical diagnosis and preclinical research. An ultra-high-strength gradient system for small animal on human-size 3 T MRI. Central Government S & T grant (107-1901-01-1902). Ruslan Garipov is an employee of MR Solutions Ltd. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript

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