Surveillance MPI Scanner for Stroke Detection on the Intensive Care Stroke Unit

Scientists at the Technical University of Hamburg (TUHH) and the University Hospital Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE) have developed a new diagnostic tomographic imaging system that enables access to cerebral blood flow at short intervals and thus quickly indicates a possible stroke. The study "Human-sized Magnetic Particle Imaging for Brain Applications" was published on the 26th of April 2019 in the renowned journal Nature Communications.

On the road to full real-time 3D imaging using approved clinical tracers, the MPI scanner has been extensively upgraded from 2019 to 2023. Several publications document the process and highlight the development of new components, like the study "Heat it up: Thermal stabilization by active heating to reduce impedance drifts in capacitive matched networks", "Gradient power reducing using pulsed selection-field sequences" or "Resonant inductive coupling network for human-sized magnetic particle imaging". A thorough exploration is presented in "System characterization of a human-sized 3D real-time magnetic particle imaging scanner for cerebral applications".

Prof. Tobias Knopp and Dr. Matthias Gräser with the surveillance imager

Project Publications

[183658]
Title: Safe and Rapid 3D Imaging: Upgrade of a Human-Sized Brain MPI System.
Written by: F. Thieben, F. Mohn, F. Foerger, N. Hackelberg, J.-P. Scheel, M. Graeser, and T. Knopp
in: <em>International Journal on Magnetic Particle Imaging</em>. mar (2023).
Volume: <strong>9</strong>. Number: (1 Suppl 1),
on pages: 1-4
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DOI: 10.18416/IJMPI.2023.2303045
URL: https://journal.iwmpi.org/index.php/iwmpi/article/view/611
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Note: inproceedings, brainimager

Abstract: Magnetic Particle Imaging hardware has reached human scale and thus patient safety questions and clinical application scenarios are in the focus of current research. In this work, we present a safe real-time 3D MPI system for cerebral applications. High voltages are avoided to ensure patient safety by a low voltage-high current transmit coil design. The developed 2D drive-field generator generates a field-free-point trajectory in the sagittal xz-plane that is shifted by a dynamic selection-field sequence along the y-axis. The scanner generates 3D images with 4 frames/second and allows for direct visualization of the clinically preferred transversal yz-plane, which is crucial for future brain examinations. Advanced reconstruction techniques reach a system sensitivity of 4 μgFe with respect to the iron mass in a sensitivity study.