Whole body screening using high-temperature superconducting MR volume resonators: mice studies

High temperature superconducting (HTS) surface resonators have been used as a low loss RF receiver resonator for improving magnetic resonance imaging image quality. However, the application of HTS surface resonators is significantly limited by their filling factor. To maximize the filling factor, it...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PloS one 2012-04, Vol.7 (4), p.e33207-e33207
Main Authors: Lin, In-Tsang, Yang, Hong-Chang, Chen, Jyh-Horng
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animals
Bioinformatics
Biology
Body temperature
Copper
Electrical engineering
Equipment Design
Experiments
High temperature
High temperature superconductors
Hot Temperature
Image Enhancement
Interdisciplinary aspects
Magnetic resonance
Magnetic resonance imaging
Magnetic Resonance Imaging - instrumentation
Magnetic Resonance Imaging - methods
Male
Materials Science
Medical imaging equipment
Medical screening
Medicine
Mice
Mice, Inbred BALB C
Microscopy
NMR
Noise
Nuclear magnetic resonance
Partial differential equations
Phantoms, Imaging
Quality
Radio frequency
Receivers & amplifiers
Resonance
Signal-To-Noise Ratio
Studies
Temperature
Whole Body Imaging - methods
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Summary:High temperature superconducting (HTS) surface resonators have been used as a low loss RF receiver resonator for improving magnetic resonance imaging image quality. However, the application of HTS surface resonators is significantly limited by their filling factor. To maximize the filling factor, it is desirable to have the RF resonator wrapped around the sample so that more nuclear magnetic dipoles can contribute to the signal. In this study, a whole new Bi(2)Sr(2)Ca(2)Cu(2)O(3) (Bi-2223) superconducting saddle resonator (width of 5 cm and length of 8 cm) was designed for the magnetic resonance image of a mouse's whole body in Bruker 3 T MRI system. The experiment was conducted with a professionally-made copper saddle resonator and a Bi-2223 saddle resonator to show the difference. Signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) with the HTS saddle resonator at 77 K was 2.1 and 2 folds higher than that of the copper saddle resonator at 300 K for a phantom and an in-vivo mice whole body imaging. Testing results were in accordance with predicted ones, and the difference between the predicted SNR gains and measured SNR gains were 2.4%∼2.7%. In summary, with this HTS saddle system, a mouse's whole body can be imaged in one scan and could reach a high SNR due to a 2 folds SNR gain over the professionally-made prototype of copper saddle resonator at 300 K. The use of HTS saddle resonator not only improves SNR but also enables a mouse's whole body screen in one scan.
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0033207