Introduction: Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a useful imaging tool for visualization of vessel walls and characterization of atherosclerotic lesions, providing high resolution and multiple imaging planes with no risk of radiation. The use of MR technology is, however, limited in imaging of deep-seated arteries, primarily due to insufficient signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) with a surface coil. ...

Magnetic resonance (MR) images of 27 patients with ocular and orbital pathology were reviewed retrospectively and correlated with computed tomography (CT), funduscopic examination, and tissue histology. Disease processes were classified by location into ocular, extraconal, intraconal, optic nerve, and orbital apex. The diagnostic efficacy of MR differed at each location. MR was very sensitive i...

Rat brain models effectively simulate a multitude of human neurological disorders. Improvements in coil design have facilitated the wider utilization of rat brain models by enabling the utilization of clinical MR scanners for image acquisition. In this study, a novel coil design, subsequently referred to as the rat brain coil, is described that exploits and combines the strengths of both soleno...

MR images of the intratemporal portion of the facial nerve were obtained with surface coils using a 0.3-T permanent magnet whole-body imaging system. Various 2DFT spin-echo pulse sequences were used to produce 5-mm thick sections with 0.5-mm pixels on a 512 X 512 acquisition matrix. The MR images from normal volunteers were correlated with cryosection specimens of three fresh human cadavers. Th...

Introduction/Purpose Interventional guidance and tracking of MR devices rely on the proper visualization and localization of MR-visible structures or markers. Wireless techniques are relatively easy to implement and less prone to potential hazards but typically do not provide the high update rates as active techniques because localization is performed on fully reconstructed images. Different so...

Introduction Recent advances in nanotechnology have heralded new processes for fabrication of nanomaterials having macroscopic dimensions. A solid-state process for producing macroscopic sheets made of carbon nanotubes has been reported in [1]. The technological promise of carbon nanotubes includes charge transport with minimal scattering, leading to expectations of large electrical conductivit...

Previous studies on HTS coils can be put into two categories: tape surface coils and thin-film surface coils[1-4]. In this study, we build a whole new Bi2Sr2Ca2Cu2O3 (Bi-2223) superconducting volume coil (length of 8 cm) designed for the mice whole body imaging at Bruker 3T MRI system. The HTS volume coil has 2.3 folds higher S/N than that of the HTS volume coil at 300K for the mice body screen...

Introduction/Purpose Small inductively coupled RF coils have already been suggested or used as MR reference markers for various purposes, for example automatic patient registration, stereotactic planning, and visualization of devices inside the magnet [1-4]. Such markers may also be suitable for the guidance of intravascular devices (catheters) because they require no electrical connection to t...

The human body is composed primarily of dielectric tissue with spatially varying permittivity and conductivity. Traditional MRI does not measure these properties. Instead, the conductivity of the patient is a nuisance, causing unpredictable detuning of coils and field inhomogeneities. This thesis presents a method for mapping the electrodynamic properties of the patient's body with both MR and ...

Recently, the first magnetic resonance microscopy (MRM) images at the cellular level in isolated mammalian brain tissues were obtained using microsurface coils. These methods can elucidate the cellular origins of MR signals and describe how these signals change over the course of disease progression and therapy. In this work, we explore the capability of these microimaging techniques to visuali...