Magnetic Particle Imaging (MPI): Experimental Quantification of Vascular Stenosis Using Stationary Stenosis Phantoms.

Magnetic Particle Imaging (MPI) is able to provide high temporal and good spatial resolution, high signal-to-noise ratio and sensitivity. Furthermore, it is a truly quantitative method as its signal strength is proportional to the concentration of its tracer, superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPIOs). Because of that, MPI is proposed to be a promising future method for cardiovascular imaging. Here, an interesting application may be the quantification of vascular pathologies like stenosis by utilizing the proportionality of the SPIO concentration and the MPI signal strength. In this study, the feasibility of MPI based stenosis quantification is evaluated based on this application scenario. Nine different stenosis phantoms with a normal diameter of 10 mm each and different stenoses of 1-9 mm and ten reference phantoms with a straight diameter of 1-10 mm were filled with a 1% Resovist dilution and measured in a preclinical MPI-demonstrator. The MPI signal intensities of the reference phantoms were compared to each other and the change of signal intensity within each stenosis phantom was used to calculate the degree of stenosis. These values were then compared to the known diameters of each phantom. As a second measurement, the 5 mm stenosis phantom was used for a serial dilution measurement down to a Resovist dilution of 1:3200 (0.031%), which is lower than a first pass blood concentration of a Resovist bolus in the peripheral arteries of an average adult human of at least about 1:1000. The correlation of the stenosis values based on MPI signal intensity measurements and based on the known diameters showed a very good agreement, proving the high precision of quantitative MPI in this regard.

Magnetic Particle Imaging: A Resovist Based Marking Technology for Guide Wires and Catheters for Vascular Interventions.

Magnetic particle imaging (MPI) is able to provide high temporal and good spatial resolution, high signal to noise ratio and sensitivity. Furthermore, it is a truly quantitative method as its signal strength is proportional to the concentration of its tracer, superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPIOs), over a wide range practically relevant concentrations. Thus, MPI is proposed as a promising future method for guidance of vascular interventions. To implement this, devices such as guide wires and catheters have to be discernible in MPI, which can be achieved by coating already commercially available devices with SPIOs. In this proof of principle study the feasibility of that approach is demonstrated. First, a Ferucarbotran-based SPIO-varnish was developed by embedding Ferucarbotran into an organic based solvent. Subsequently, the biocompatible varnish was applied to a commercially available guidewire and diagnostic catheter for vascular interventional purposes. In an interventional setting using a vessel phantom, the coating proved to be mechanically and chemically stable and thin enough to ensure normal handling as with uncoated devices. The devices were visualized in 3D on a preclinical MPI demonstrator using a system function based image reconstruction process. The system function was acquired with a probe of the dried varnish prior to the measurements. The devices were visualized with a very high temporal resolution and a simple catheter/guide wire maneuver was demonstrated.

Magnetic particle imaging: current developments and future directions.

Magnetic particle imaging (MPI) is a novel imaging method that was first proposed by Gleich and Weizenecker in 2005. Applying static and dynamic magnetic fields, MPI exploits the unique characteristics of superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPIONs). The SPIONs' response allows a three-dimensional visualization of their distribution in space with a superb contrast, a very high temporal and good spatial resolution. Essentially, it is the SPIONs' superparamagnetic characteristics, the fact that they are magnetically saturable, and the harmonic composition of the SPIONs' response that make MPI possible at all. As SPIONs are the essential element of MPI, the development of customized nanoparticles is pursued with the greatest effort by many groups. Their objective is the creation of a SPION or a conglomerate of particles that will feature a much higher MPI performance than nanoparticles currently available commercially. A particle's MPI performance and suitability is characterized by parameters such as the strength of its MPI signal, its biocompatibility, or its pharmacokinetics. Some of the most important adjuster bolts to tune them are the particles' iron core and hydrodynamic diameter, their anisotropy, the composition of the particles' suspension, and their coating. As a three-dimensional, real-time imaging modality that is free of ionizing radiation, MPI appears ideally suited for applications such as vascular imaging and interventions as well as cellular and targeted imaging. A number of different theories and technical approaches on the way to the actual implementation of the basic concept of MPI have been seen in the last few years. Research groups around the world are working on different scanner geometries, from closed bore systems to single-sided scanners, and use reconstruction methods that are either based on actual calibration measurements or on theoretical models. This review aims at giving an overview of current developments and future directions in MPI about a decade after its first appearance.

Magnetic particle imaging: kinetics of the intravascular signal in vivo.

BACKGROUND: Magnetic particle imaging (MPI) uses magnetic fields to visualize superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPIO). Today, Resovist(®) is still the reference SPIO for MPI. The objective of this study was to evaluate the in vivo blood half-life of two different types of Resovist (one from Bayer Pharma AG, and one from I'rom Pharmaceutical Co Ltd) in MPI. METHODS: A Resovist concentration of 50 µmol/kg was injected into the ear artery of ten New Zealand White rabbits. Five animals received Resovist distributed by I'rom Pharmaceutical Co Ltd and five received Resovist by Bayer Pharma AG. Blood samples were drawn before and directly after injection of Resovist, at 5, 10, and 15 minutes, and then every 15 minutes until 120 minutes after the injection. The MPI signal of the blood samples was evaluated using magnetic particle spectroscopy. RESULTS: The average decline of the blood MPI signal from the two distributions differed significantly (P=0.0056). Resovist distributed by Bayer Pharma AG showed a slower decline of the MPI signal (39.7% after 5 minutes, 20.5% after 10 minutes, and 12.1% after 15 minutes) compared with Resovist produced by I'rom Pharmaceutical Co Ltd (20.4% after 5 minutes, 7.8% after 10 minutes, no signal above noise level after 15 minutes). CONCLUSION: In MPI, the blood half-life of an SPIO tracer cannot be equalized to the blood half-life of its MPI signal. Resovist shows a very rapid decline of blood MPI signal and is thus not suitable as a long circulating tracer. For cardiovascular applications in MPI, it may be used as a bolus tracer.

Safety measurements for heating of instruments for cardiovascular interventions in magnetic particle imaging (MPI) - first experiences.

Magnetic particle imaging (MPI) has emerged as a new imaging method with the potential of delivering images of high spatial and temporal resolutions and free of ionizing radiation. Recent studies demonstrated the feasibility of differentiation between signal-generating and non-signal-generating devices in Magnetic Particle Spectroscopy (MPS) and visualization of commercially available catheters and guide-wires in MPI itself. Thus, MPI seems to be a promising imaging tool for cardiovascular interventions. Several commercially available catheters and guide-wires were tested in this study regarding heating. Heating behavior was correlated to the spectra generated by the devices and measured by the MPI. The results indicate that each instrument should be tested separately due to the wide spectrum of measured temperature changes of signal-generating instruments, which is up to 85°C in contrast to non-signal-generating devices. Development of higher temperatures seems to be a limitation for the use of these devices in cardiovascular interventions.

A dual-axis tilt acquisition geometry for digital musculoskeletal tomosynthesis.

Digital tomosynthesis (DT) is a limited angle tomographic x-ray technique. It is an attractive low-dose alternative to computed tomography (CT) in many imaging applications. However, the DT dataset is incomplete, which leads to out-of-focus artifacts and limited axial resolution. In this paper, a novel dual-axis tilt acquisition geometry is proposed and evaluated. This geometry solves some issues in tomosynthesis with the traditional scanning geometry by scanning the object with a set of perpendicular arcs. In this geometry the acquisition in the additional perpendicular direction is done using a tiltable object supporting platform. The proposed geometry allows for capturing more singularities of the Radon transform, filling the Fourier space with more data and better approximating the Tuy-Smith conditions. In order to evaluate the proposed system, several studies have been carried out. To validate the simulation setup the performance of the traditional scanning geometry has been simulated and compared to known results from the literature. It has also been shown that the possible improvement of the image quality in the traditional geometry is limited. These limitations can be partially overcome by using the proposed dual-axis tilt geometry. The novel geometry is superior and with the same number of projections better reconstructed images can be obtained. All studies have been made using a software tomosynthesis simulator. A micro-CT reconstruction of a bone has been used as a software phantom. Simultaneous algebraic reconstruction has been used to reconstruct simulated projections. As a conclusion, acquiring data outside the standard arc allows for improving performance of musculoskeletal tomosynthesis. With the proposed dual-axis acquisition geometry a performance gain is achieved without an increase in dose and major modifications to the instrumentation of existing tomosynthesis devices.

Comparison of commercial iron oxide-based MRI contrast agents with synthesized high-performance MPI tracers.

Magnetic particle imaging (MPI) recently emerged as a new tomographic imaging method directly visualizing the amount and location of superparamagnetic iron oxide particles (SPIOs) with high spatial resolution. To fully exploit the imaging performance of MPI, specific requirements are demanded on the SPIOs. Most important, a sufficiently high number of detectable harmonics of the receive signal spectrum is required. In this study, an assessment of commercial iron oxide-based MRI contrast agents is carried out, and the result is compared with that of a new self-synthesized high-performance MPI tracer. The decay of the harmonics is measured with a magnetic particle spectrometer (MPS). For the self-synthesized carboxymethyldextran-coated SPIO, it can be demonstrated that despite a small iron core diameter, the particle performance is as good as in Resovist, the best-performing commercial SPIO today. However, the self-synthesized particles show the lowest iron concentration compared with Resovist, Sinerem, and Endorem. As the iron dose will be an important issue in human MPI, the synthesis technique and the separation chain for self-synthesis will be pursued for further improvements. In evaluations carried out with MPS, it can be shown in this work that the quality of the self-synthesized nanoparticles outperforms the three commercial tracer materials when the decay of harmonics is normalized by the iron concentration. The results of this work emphasize the importance of producing highly uniform and monodisperse superparamagnetic particles contributing to lower application of tracer concentration, better sensitivity, or a higher spatial resolution.