Franz Schmitt

Reliability in multi-site structural MRI studies: Effects of gradient non-linearity correction on phantom and human data

Longitudinal and multi-site clinical studies create the imperative to characterize and correct technological sources of variance that limit image reproducibility in high-resolution structural MRI studies, thus facilitating precise, quantitative, platform-independent, multi-site evaluation. In this work, we investigated the effects that imaging gradient non-linearity have on reproducibility of multi-site human MRI. We applied an image distortion correction method based on spherical harmonics description of the gradients and verified the accuracy of the method using phantom data. The correction method was then applied to the brain image data from a group of subjects scanned twice at multiple sites having different 1.5 T platforms. Within-site and across-site variability of the image data was assessed by evaluating voxel-based image intensity reproducibility. The image intensity reproducibility of the human brain data was significantly improved with distortion correction, suggesting that this method may offer improved reproducibility in morphometry studies. We provide the source code for the gradient distortion algorithm together with the phantom data.

Monitoring the patient's EEG during echo planar MRI

The recording of an EEG while the patient is undergoing magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data acquisition, as far as we are aware, has not been previously accomplished. By careful selection and arrangement of analog multiplexed cable-telemetry equipment to eliminate both ferrous and RF sources, a stable, readable EEG can be obtained without interfering with the diagnostic quality of the MRI. This arrangement does not cause localized heating or burning at the electrode sites. This technical capability permits more accurate neurophysiological control during the acquisition of echo planar functional MRI studies as well as providing indications of anatomical localization of electrical sources.

Parallel RF transmission with eight channels at 3 tesla

Spatially selective RF waveforms were designed and demonstrated for parallel excitation with a dedicated eight‐coil transmit array on a modified 3T human MRI scanner. Measured excitation profiles of individual coils in the array were used in a low‐flip‐angle pulse design to achieve desired spatial target profiles with two‐ (2D) and three‐dimensional (3D) k‐space excitation with simultaneous transmission of RF on eight channels. The 2D pulse excited a high‐resolution spatial pattern in‐plane, while the 3D trajectory produced high‐quality slice selection with a uniform in‐plane excitation despite the highly nonuniform individual spatial profiles of the coil array. The multichannel parallel RF excitation was used to accelerate the 2D excitation by factors of 2–8, and experimental results were in excellent agreement with simulations based on the measured coil maps. Parallel RF transmission may become critical for robust and routine human studies at very high field strengths where B1 inhomogeneity is commonly severe. Magn Reson Med, 2006.

Slice-Selective RF pulses for In-vivo B1+ Inhomogeneity Mitigation at 7 Tesla using Parallel RF Excitation with a 16-Element Coil

Slice‐selective RF waveforms that mitigate severe B  1+ inhomogeneity at 7 Tesla using parallel excitation were designed and validated in a water phantom and human studies on six subjects using a 16‐element degenerate stripline array coil driven with a butler matrix to utilize the eight most favorable birdcage modes. The parallel RF waveform design applied magnitude least‐squares (MLS) criteria with an optimized k‐space excitation trajectory to significantly improve profile uniformity compared to conventional least‐squares (LS) designs. Parallel excitation RF pulses designed to excite a uniform in‐plane flip angle (FA) with slice selection in the z‐direction were demonstrated and compared with conventional sinc‐pulse excitation and RF shimming. In all cases, the parallel RF excitation significantly mitigated the effects of inhomogeneous B  1+ on the excitation FA. The optimized parallel RF pulses for human B  1+ mitigation were only 67% longer than a conventional sinc‐based excitation, but significantly outperformed RF shimming. For example the standard deviations (SDs) of the in‐plane FA (averaged over six human studies) were 16.7% for conventional sinc excitation, 13.3% for RF shimming, and 7.6% for parallel excitation. This work demonstrates that excitations with parallel RF systems can provide slice selection with spatially uniform FAs at high field strengths with only a small pulse‐duration penalty. Magn Reson Med 60:1422–1432, 2008.

Physiological effects of fast oscillating magnetic field gradients

To evaluate the physiological thresholds of neuromuscular stimulation relevant to very fast NMR imaging studies that use gradient switching at frequencies of 1-2 kHz and a maximum magnetic field of up to 10 mT, a series of studies were done with human volunteers using an experimental echo planar gradient coil set. The threshold for induction of localized and momentary sensations in the human back and abdomen for 10 subjects is 60 T/s for sinusoidally oscillating magnetic fields at 1.27 kHz. The threshold relates to an E field of 6 V/m and is shown to vary with number of oscillations and frequency in accord with theory. Using a simple model of E field induction, the threshold for stimulation of cardiac electrical events should be greater than 4 times this value.

Comparison of cardiac MRI on 1.5 and 3.0 Tesla clinical whole body systems.

Rationale and ObjectivesA cardiac imaging pilot study was performed on 1.5 and 3.0 Tesla (T) whole body magnetic resonance units equipped with identical gradient sets and geometrically equivalent body coils. The goals were to compare the signal-to-noise (SNR) and contrast-to-noise (CNR) ratios on matched studies conducted at both field strengths and demonstrate the potential for functional and morphologic cardiac evaluation at 3.0 T. MethodsShort axis cine true fast imaging with steady precession (True FISP) was compared at 1.5 and 3.0 T using the body coil in transmit-receive mode and transmit-only with single loop and phased array receiver coils. SNR of the myocardium and CNR of the ventricular blood and myocardium were calculated from a quantitative region of interest analysis of these data. Additionally at 3.0 T, long axis and 4-chamber cine as well as “dark blood” imaging are demonstrated with sequence and parameter settings comparable to current state of the art for cardiac evaluation at 1.5 T. ResultsThe 3.0 T data consistently demonstrates increases in SNR when all imaging conditions are closely matched but the increase has a large variability ranging from 20 to 85% depending on the radiofrequency coil configuration. Ventricular blood–myocardium CNR greater than 30 is obtained at 3.0 T, which is comparable to an optimized 1.5 T acquisition despite the specific absorption rate limitation of flip angle to nearly one half the value. The increased SNR at 3.0 T improves detection of fine anatomic detail, such as the chordae tendineae and mitral valve structure. ConclusionsIncreased specific absorption rate can be a limiting fact; however, we have demonstrated that 3.0 T cardiac imaging shows gains in SNR while maintaining the CNR. The SNR gain is advantageous, and phased array coil technology is key for improving cardiac magnetic resonance imaging at 3.0 T.

Degenerate mode band-pass birdcage coil for accelerated parallel excitation.

An eight‐rung, 3T degenerate birdcage coil (DBC) was constructed and evaluated for accelerated parallel excitation of the head with eight independent excitation channels. Two mode configurations were tested. In the first, each of the eight loops formed by the birdcage was individually excited, producing an excitation pattern similar to a loop coil array. In the second configuration a Butler matrix transformed this “loop coil” basis set into a basis set representing the orthogonal modes of the birdcage coil. In this case the rung currents vary sinusoidally around the coil and only four of the eight modes have significant excitation capability (the other four produce anticircularly polarized (ACP) fields). The lowest useful mode produces the familiar uniform B1 field pattern, and the higher‐order modes produce center magnitude nulls and azimuthal phase variations. The measured magnitude and phase excitation profiles of the individual modes were used to generate one‐, four‐, six‐, and eightfold‐accelerated spatially tailored RF excitations with 2D and 3D k‐space excitation trajectories. Transmit accelerations of up to six‐fold were possible with acceptable levels of spatial artifact. The orthogonal basis set provided by the Butler matrix was found to be advantageous when an orthogonal subset of these modes was used to mitigate B1 transmit inhomogeneities using parallel excitation. Magn Reson Med 57:1148–1158, 2007.

Broadband slab selection with B1+ mitigation at 7T via parallel spectral-spatial excitation.

Chemical shift imaging benefits from signal‐to‐noise ratio (SNR) and chemical shift dispersion increases at stronger main field such as 7 Tesla, but the associated shorter radiofrequency (RF) wavelengths encountered require B  1+ mitigation over both the spatial field of view (FOV) and a specified spectral bandwidth. The bandwidth constraint presents a challenge for previously proposed spatially tailored B  1+ mitigation methods, which are based on a type of echovolumnar trajectory referred to as “spokes” or “fast‐kz”. Although such pulses, in conjunction with parallel excitation methodology, can efficiently mitigate large B  1+ inhomogeneities and achieve relatively short pulse durations with slice‐selective excitations, they exhibit a narrow‐band off‐resonance response and may not be suitable for applications that require B  1+ mitigation over a large spectral bandwidth. This work outlines a design method for a general parallel spectral‐spatial excitation that achieves a target‐error minimization simultaneously over a bandwidth of frequencies and a specified spatial‐domain. The technique is demonstrated for slab‐selective excitation with in‐plane B  1+ mitigation over a 600‐Hz bandwidth. The pulse design method is validated in a water phantom at 7T using an eight‐channel transmit array system. The results show significant increases in the pulses spectral bandwidth, with no additional pulse duration penalty and only a minor tradeoff in spatial B  1+ mitigation compared to the standard spoke‐based parallel RF design. Magn Reson Med 61:493–500, 2009.

High-flip-angle slice-selective parallel RF transmission with 8 channels at 7 T.

At high magnetic field, B(1)(+) non-uniformity causes undesired inhomogeneity in SNR and image contrast. Parallel RF transmission using tailored 3D k-space trajectory design has been shown to correct for this problem and produce highly uniform in-plane magnetization with good slice selection profile within a relatively short excitation duration. However, at large flip angles the excitation k-space based design method fails. Consequently, several large-flip-angle parallel transmission designs have recently been suggested. In this work, we propose and demonstrate a large-flip-angle parallel excitation design for 90 degrees and 180 degrees spin-echo slice-selective excitations that mitigate severe B(1)(+) inhomogeneity. The method was validated on an 8-channel transmit array at 7T using a water phantom with B(1)(+) inhomogeneity similar to that seen in human brain in vivo. Slice-selective excitations with parallel RF systems offer means to implement conventional high-flip excitation sequences without a severe pulse-duration penalty, even at very high B(0) field strengths where large B(1)(+) inhomogeneity is present.

Nuclear magnetic resonance tomography apparatus having a resonant circuit for generating gradient fields

A nuclear magnetic resonance tomography apparatus has at least one gradient coil interconnected with a capacitor to form a resonant circuit. Before the beginning of each read-out sequence, the capacitor is charged to a higher voltage than would be necessary to produce a pure sine oscillation during the read-out sequence. The rise time of the gradient pulse thus produced is less than one-fourth of the duration of the sinusoidal oscillation before the zero-axis crossing, and the decay time is less than one-fourth of the duration of the sinusoidal oscillation after the zero-axis crossing. Additionally, a constant part of each gradient pulse is non-resonantly generated by a gradient amplifier. Only the steep parts of the oscillation of the resonant circuit are used for the rising and trailing edges, whereas the flattened part of the sine oscillation is cut off. The rising and trailing edges can thus be noticeably shortened, so that a greater range for the constant gradient value, which can be equidistantly sampled in the k-space is available for the signal evaluation.