Development of translational simple multinuclear MRI system for ultra high-field
Chang-Hoon Choi 1, YongHyun Ha1, Pandichelvam Veeraiah1, Jörg Felder1, Klaus Möllenhoff1, and N. Jon Shah1,2

1Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine-4, Research Centre Juelich, Juelich, Germany, 2Faculty of Medicine, Department of Neurology, JARA, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany

Synopsis

Non-proton MRI has recently been of great interest with the increased availability of ultra high-field MRI system. A translational multinuclear MRI system for 1H, 13C, 17O, 19F, 23Na and 31P was developed using six optimised single-tuned RF resonator sets and implemented at the home-assembled 9.4T small animal MRI scanner. This system demonstrated its capability of identifying the concentration difference and sensitivity of these X-nuclei without signal-to-noise-ratio loss for any nuclei, subject interruption and degrading in the static shim condition.

Purpose/Introduction

Non-proton MRI offers unique metabolic and cellular information of tissues. However, due to its lower MR sensitivity and natural abundance, it is a challenging task. Recent advanced development and increased availability of ultra high-field MRI scanners enable conducting non-proton MR researches with further improved sensitivity.1,2 In order to carry out multinuclear MR experiments, additional hardware, such as an RF coil and a T/R switch for each nucleus is crucial. The double/triple-tuned RF probe using trap or PIN diode circuits is typically utilised, but this approach degrades image quality compared to a single-tuned coil and limits the available nuclei to two/three at a full measurement.3,4 The single-tuned concepts using surface5 and volume coils6 were introduced but these require moving the patient or anaesthetised animal in and out during the scan which requires precise repositioning to avoid registration issues or a degradation in the static shim. In this work, we designed and implemented the required hardware for multinuclear MR imaging experiment utilising six single-tuned coil sets and a tailored designed animal bed. Here, the coils can be removed without disturbing the animal bed or its positioning thereby ensuring that repositioning and reshimming are not required.

Methods

As shown in Figure 1, six shielded, identical, circularly polarised high-pass birdcage coils including T/R switches were built and tuned to each corresponding nucleus (1H, 13C, 17O, 19F, 23Na and 31P). The dedicated animal bed and the coil/phantom holder were designed using the in-house 3D printer in order to minimise loss due to the filling factor and to precisely duplicate the coil cases. These were implemented into the home-integrated 9.4T small animal MRI scanner (Agilent magnet/gradient system with Siemens electronics and software). The coil set was inserted and replaced from the rear side of the magnet to avoid disturbance of the anaesthetised animal and to maintain it in the same position. Coil switch-over between nuclei was completed in less than a minute. A multi-sample phantom was prepared with seven 2 ml eppendorf tubes containing 30 and 50 mM NaCl, 0.1% enriched 17O, 12 mM Na3PO4, 75 mM NaF, 4% agarose gel and 1 mM CuSO4 as a control. Standard adjustment, mainly shimming was performed using the 1H coil prior to multinuclear experiments and the optimised shim data were utilised for each nucleus during the acquisition.

Results

The pilot and T2-weighted proton images were acquired using a gradient echo (TR/TE = 80/3.76 ms, 4 avg., 400 µm x 400 µm x 1 mm resolution) and a turbo spin echo (TR/TE = 3000/38 ms, 4 avg., 400 µm x 400 µm x 1 mm resolution, scan time = 3:21 minutes) sequence, respectively. Multinuclear MR images were obtained with the gradient echo (TR/TE = 130/3.61 ms, 128 Avg., 1 x 1 x 1 mm resolution, Scan time ~ 9:27 minutes) for 23Na and a 3D FLASH for both 17O (TR/TE = 30/2.43 ms, 94 Avg., 1 x 1 x 1 mm resolution, Scan time ~ 15:51 minutes) and 19F (TR/TE = 500/3.69 ms, 64 Avg., 1 x 1 x 1 mm resolution, Scan time ~ 20:20). The 31P spectrum was also obtained from the Na3PO4 sample by the use of an image-selected in vivo spectroscopy sequence (TR/TE = 10000/0.35 ms, 56 Avg., Scan time ~ 10 minutes). The concentration difference and sensitivity of these X-nuclei are clearly identified and is evaluated in Figure 2. For example, 30 and 50 mM NaCl, 75 mM NaF and 12 mM Na3PO4 phantoms containing different amounts of sodium are visualised by 23Na imaging while 19F MRI detects the signal only from the NaF phantom. Since the phantoms are aqueous, all appear on the 17O image.

Discussion/Conclusions

Although the coil set has to be swapped between measurements, the simple hardware provides a number of benefits which are no signal-to-noise-ratio loss for any nuclei, no subject interruption, maintaining excellent shimming condition, and easy to expand for other nuclei. This multinuclear system allows us to continue working on in vivo animal studies in order to characterise various cellular processes, such as oxygen consumption (17O), ATP quantification (31P), glycogen detection (13C), cell tracking mechanisms (19F) and the functionality of sodium (23Na) in different pathological conditions.

Acknowledgements

No acknowledgement found.

References

1. Shah N.J., et al. Imaging of sodium in the brain: a brief review. NMR Biomed., 2015.

2. Atkinson I.C. and Thulborn K.R. Feasibility of mapping the tissue mass corrected bioscale of cerebral metabolic rate of oxygen consumption using 17-oxygen and 23-sodium MR imaging in a human brain at 9.4 T. Neuroimage, 2010;51(2):723–733.

3. Lim H., et al. Construction and evaluation of a switch-tuned 13C - 1H birdcage radiofrequency coil for imaging the metabolism of hyperpolarized 13C-enriched compounds. J. Magn. Reson. Imaging, 2014; 40:1082-1090.

4. Wetterling F., et al. A triple-resonant coil system for inherently co-registered proton-, sodium- and chloride-MRI at 9.4T. ISMRM. 2011;19:3501.

5. Gareis D., et al. Transmit-receive coil-arrays at 17.6T, configurations for 1H, 23Na, and 31P MRI. Concepts Magn. Reson. B. 2006;29B(1):20-27.

6. Lu A. et al. PCr/ATP Ratio Mapping of the Human Head by Simultaneously Imaging of Multiple Spectral Peaks with Interleaved Excitations and Flexible Twisted Projection Imaging Readout Trajectories at 9.4 T, Magn. Reson. Med., 2013;69:538-544.

Figures

Multinuclear RF coil sets

Multinuclear images (a: Co-registered 1H, 17O, 19F and 23Na, b: 23Na, c: 1H_GRE, d: 17O, e: 19F, f: 1H_T2w) and 31P spectrum. Phantom information – 1: 75 mM NaF, 2: 30 mM NaCl, 3: 0.1% 17O, 4: 50 mM NaCl, 5: 4% Agarose gel, 6: 12 mM Na3PO4, 7: Control



Proc. Intl. Soc. Mag. Reson. Med. 24 (2016)
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