SBIR-STTR Award

Epilepsy affects 7 million people globally, and the temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) is its most common form. ForTLE patients that are undergoing surgical treatment, functional neuroimaging is vitally important to localizeepileptic focus, maximize the preservation of unaffected areas, and optimize post-surgical outcomes. MRspectroscopic imaging (MRSI) is a promising modality to directly localize abnormalities of metabolites andneurotransmitters in the epileptic focus. To date, multiple clinical studies have demonstrated the prognosticvalue of MRSI in post-surgical outcomes for TLE and other neurological disorders such as glioblastoma andbrain trauma. However, the MRSI image reliability is often impaired by the insufficient B0 field homogeneity ina certain region of the brain. Particularly, the susceptibility mismatch between the air in the sphenoid sinus andtemporal lobe(TL) leads to local B0 field distortion, hence disrupt the spectral quality in a major portion of theTL. Although state-of-the-art MRI scanners are equipped with B0 field correcting capability (B0 shimming), itcan only correct for slow varying fields and not the higher-order field disturbance at the tissue/air interfaces. Inorder to provide accurate and reliable MRSI for the temporal lobe, a reliable high-order B0 shimming devicethat can fit into clinical workflow is highly desirable. There are limited options in the market of high-order B0shimming devices. The available products are usually too heavy and too complicated to be adopted in aroutine clinical setting. In this proposal, we propose a lightweight high-order shim coil that provides reliablewhole TL MRSI coverage under standard clinical workflow. Adopting the surface shim/RF coil technology,lightweight coil components, and optimized interface design, a plug-and-play high-order B0 shim coil will bedeveloped and integrated into a clinical high field scanner. The endpoints of this proposal will lay thefoundation to enable clinical high-order B0 homogeneity in high field clinical scanners. This will facilitate theclinical translation of state-of-the-art MRSI for temporal lobe epilepsy and other major neurological diseases.

Public Health Relevance Statement:
Narrative: MR spectroscopic imaging (MRSI) provides unique functional information for the assessment of epilepsy and other neurological disorders. However, high-order B0 variation at the air/tissue interface in the temporal lobe significantly limits the reliability of clinical MRSI. A clinically viable high-order B0 shimming device can provide a highly homogeneous B0 field at the air/tissue interface, which can facilitate the clinical translation of state-of-the-art MRSI to improve management for temporal lobe epilepsy.

Project Terms:
Adoption ; Affect ; Air ; Body Regions ; Brain Neoplasms ; Brain Neoplasia ; Brain Tumors ; tumors in the brain ; Clinical Research ; Clinical Study ; Cyclotrons ; Disease ; Disorder ; Engineering ; Epilepsy ; Epileptic Seizures ; Epileptics ; Seizure Disorder ; epilepsia ; epileptiform ; epileptogenic ; Temporal Lobe Epilepsy ; Foundations ; Glioblastoma ; Grade IV Astrocytic Neoplasm ; Grade IV Astrocytic Tumor ; Grade IV Astrocytoma ; glioblastoma multiforme ; spongioblastoma multiforme ; Head ; Heating ; Hippocampus (Brain) ; Ammon Horn ; Cornu Ammonis ; Hippocampus ; hippocampal ; Hospitals ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; MR Imaging ; MR Tomography ; MRI ; Medical Imaging, Magnetic Resonance / Nuclear Magnetic Resonance ; NMR Imaging ; NMR Tomography ; Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Zeugmatography ; Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy ; MR Spectroscopy ; Maps ; Metabolism ; Intermediary Metabolism ; Metabolic Processes ; Multiple Sclerosis ; Disseminated Sclerosis ; insular sclerosis ; Persons ; Names ; Nerve Degeneration ; Neuron Degeneration ; neural degeneration ; neurodegeneration ; neurodegenerative ; neurological degeneration ; neuronal degeneration ; nervous system disorder ; Nervous System Diseases ; Neurologic Disorders ; Neurological Disorders ; neurological disease ; Neurotransmitters ; Nerve Transmitter Substances ; Paper ; Patients ; Play ; Positron-Emission Tomography ; PET ; PET Scan ; PET imaging ; PETSCAN ; PETT ; Positron Emission Tomography Medical Imaging ; Positron Emission Tomography Scan ; Rad.-PET ; positron emission tomographic (PET) imaging ; positron emission tomographic imaging ; positron emitting tomography ; Protons ; H+ element ; Hydrogen Ions ; Publishing ; Research ; Sphenoidal sinus ; Sphenoid Sinus ; Standard Preparations ; Technology ; Temporal Lobe ; temporal cortex ; Testing ; Time ; Tissues ; Body Tissues ; Weight ; Generations ; Imaging Techniques ; Imaging Procedures ; Imaging Technics ; Entrepreneurship ; Entrepreneurial Skill ; Businesses ; Yang ; human subject ; improved ; Procedures ; Area ; Surface ; Clinical ; Phase ; Variant ; Variation ; Medical ; Predisposition ; Susceptibility ; Lesion ; soft tissue ; lightweight ; light weight ; tool ; Consensus ; Adopted ; Techniques ; System ; Operative Procedures ; Surgical ; Surgical Interventions ; Surgical Procedure ; surgery ; Operative Surgical Procedures ; Structure ; neuro-imaging ; neuroimaging ; Modality ; Devices ; Mitochondrial Disorders ; mitochondrial disease/disorder ; Mitochondrial Diseases ; Functional impairment ; functional disability ; Brain Trauma ; traumatic brain damage ; Traumatic Brain Injury ; Brain region ; Data ; Resolution ; Preparation ; Process ; magnetic resonance spectroscopic imaging ; 1H- Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopic Imaging ; MRSI ; Proton Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopic Imaging ; Cellular Metabolic Process ; cell metabolism ; cellular metabaolism ; Image ; imaging ; design ; designing ; Epileptogenesis ; spectroscopic imaging ; imaging spectroscopy ; scale up ; Impairment ; clinical application ; clinical applicability ; neocortical ; clinical practice ; prognostic value ; prognostic ability ; prognostic power ; prognostic utility ; radio frequency ; radiofrequency ; routine imaging ; clinical translation ; surgery outcome ; surgical outcome ; preservation ; analysis pipeline ;

Epilepsy affects 7 million people globally, and the temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) is its most common form. ForTLE patients that are undergoing surgical treatment, functional neuroimaging is vitally important to localizeepileptic focus, maximize the preservation of unaffected areas, and optimize post-surgical outcomes. MRspectroscopic imaging (MRSI) is a promising modality to directly localize abnormalities of metabolites andneurotransmitters in the epileptic focus. To date, multiple clinical studies have demonstrated the prognosticvalue of MRSI in post-surgical outcomes for TLE and other neurological disorders such as glioblastoma andbrain trauma. However, the MRSI image reliability is often impaired by the insufficient B0 field homogeneity ina certain region of the brain. Particularly, the susceptibility mismatch between the air in the sphenoid sinus andtemporal lobe(TL) leads to local B0 field distortion, hence disrupt the spectral quality in a major portion of theTL. Although state-of-the-art MRI scanners are equipped with B0 field correcting capability (B0 shimming), itcan only correct for slow varying fields and not the higher-order field disturbance at the tissue/air interfaces. Inorder to provide accurate and reliable MRSI for the temporal lobe, a reliable high-order B0 shimming devicethat can fit into clinical workflow is highly desirable. There are limited options in the market of high-order B0shimming devices. The available products are usually too heavy and too complicated to be adopted in aroutine clinical setting. In this proposal, we propose a lightweight high-order shim coil that provides reliablewhole TL MRSI coverage under standard clinical workflow. Adopting the surface shim/RF coil technology,lightweight coil components, and optimized interface design, a plug-and-play high-order B0 shim coil will bedeveloped and integrated into a clinical high field scanner. The endpoints of this proposal will lay thefoundation to enable clinical high-order B0 homogeneity in high field clinical scanners. This will facilitate theclinical translation of state-of-the-art MRSI for temporal lobe epilepsy and other major neurological diseases.

Public Health Relevance Statement:
Narrative: MR spectroscopic imaging (MRSI) provides unique functional information for the assessment of epilepsy and other neurological disorders. However, high-order B0 variation at the air/tissue interface in the temporal lobe significantly limits the reliability of clinical MRSI. A clinically viable high-order B0 shimming device can provide a highly homogeneous B0 field at the air/tissue interface, which can facilitate the clinical translation of state-of-the-art MRSI to improve management for temporal lobe epilepsy.

Project Terms:
<1H- Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopic Imaging>