Vacuum formed coils for MRI.

PURPOSE: To describe a digital fabrication method used for custom MRI receive coils with vacuum forming and electroless copper plating. METHODS: Our process produces intricate copper traces on curved surfaces. A three-dimensional scan of a desired anatomy is obtained and used to design coil elements. The layout is predistorted with a self built simulation of the vacuum forming process and the geometric overlaps are tested with electromagnetic simulation software. The desired coil geometry is patterned onto a polycarbonate sheet by sandblasting through a tape mask. The sandblasted areas are then catalyzed with a palladium-tin solution and vacuum formed. The catalyzed, three-dimensional part is placed into a custom built plating tank and copper plated. Electronic components are attached to the copper traces to form resonant receive coils. The methods described here are demonstrated and tested with an 8 channel visual cortex coil array. RESULTS: The prototype coils exhibit quality factor ratios higher than three, indicating body noise dominance. The coil array shows high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) near the periphery of a head shaped phantom. In vivo images with up to 0 . 37 × 0 . 37 × 0 . 67 mm 3 $$ 0.37\times 0.37\times 0.67\;{\mathrm{mm}}^3 $$ spatial resolution were acquired on a human volunteer. CONCLUSION: This work presents the first example of vacuum formed coils with direct electroless copper plating. Our fabrication method results in coil arrays that are in close proximity to the body. This methods described here may enable the rapid development of a set of coils of different sizes for applications including longitudinal fMRI studies and MR-guided therapies.

DiSpect: Displacement spectrum imaging of flow and tissue perfusion using spin-labeling and stimulated echoes.

PURPOSE: We propose a new method, displacement spectrum (DiSpect) imaging, for probing in vivo complex tissue dynamics such as motion, flow, diffusion, and perfusion. Based on stimulated echoes and image phase, our flexible approach enables observations of the spin dynamics over short (milliseconds) to long (seconds) evolution times. METHODS: The DiSpect method is a Fourier-encoded variant of displacement encoding with stimulated echoes, which encodes bulk displacement of spins that occurs between tagging and imaging in the image phase. However, this method fails to capture partial volume effects as well as blood flow. The DiSpect variant mitigates this by performing multiple scans with increasing displacement-encoding steps. Fourier analysis can then resolve the multidimensional spectrum of displacements that spins exhibit over the mixing time. In addition, repeated imaging following tagging can capture dynamic displacement spectra with increasing mixing times. RESULTS: We demonstrate properties of DiSpect MRI using flow phantom experiments as well as in vivo brain scans. Specifically, the ability of DiSpect to perform retrospective vessel-selective perfusion imaging at multiple mixing times is highlighted. CONCLUSION: The DiSpect variant is a new tool in the arsenal of MRI techniques for probing complex tissue dynamics. The flexibility and the rich information it provides open the possibility of alternative ways to quantitatively measure numerous complex spin dynamics, such as flow and perfusion within a single exam.

Quantitative anatomy mimicking slice phantoms.

PURPOSE: To present a reproducible methodology for building an anatomy mimicking phantom with targeted T1 and T2 contrast for use in quantitative magnetic resonance imaging. METHODS: We propose a reproducible method for creating high-resolution, quantitative slice phantoms. The phantoms are created using gels with different concentrations of NiCl2 and MnCl2 to achieve targeted T1 and T2 values. We describe a calibration method for accurately targeting anatomically realistic relaxation pairs. In addition, we developed a method of fabricating slice phantoms by extruding 3D printed walls on acrylic sheets. These procedures are combined to create a physical analog of the Brainweb digital phantom. RESULTS: With our method, we are able to target specific T1 /T2 values with less than 10% error. Additionally, our slice phantoms look realistic since their geometries are derived from anatomical data. CONCLUSION: Standardized and accurate tools for validating new techniques across sequences, platforms, and different imaging sites are important. Anatomy mimicking, multi-contrast phantoms designed with our procedures could be used for evaluating, testing, and verifying model-based methods.

Wireless User-Generic Ear EEG.

In the past few years it has been demonstrated that electroencephalography (EEG) can be recorded from inside the ear (in-ear EEG). To open the door to low-profile earpieces as wearable brain-computer interfaces (BCIs), this work presents a practical in-ear EEG device based on multiple dry electrodes, a user-generic design, and a lightweight wireless interface for streaming data and device programming. The earpiece is designed for improved ear canal contact across a wide population of users and is fabricated in a low-cost and scalable manufacturing process based on standard techniques such as vacuum forming, plasma-treatment, and spray coating. A 2.5 × 2.5 cm2 wireless recording module is designed to record and stream data wirelessly to a host computer. Performance was evaluated on three human subjects over three months and compared with clinical-grade wet scalp EEG recordings. Recordings of spontaneous and evoked physiological signals, eye-blinks, alpha rhythm, and the auditory steady-state response (ASSR), are presented. This is the first wireless in-ear EEG to our knowledge to incorporate a dry multielectrode, user-generic design. The user-generic ear EEG recorded a mean alpha modulation of 2.17, outperforming the state-of-the-art in dry electrode in-ear EEG systems.