Development of Imaging Techniques for MRI Scanners.

• Research type

  Research Study

• Full title

  Development of imaging techniques for MRI scanners to improve disease diagnosis and monitoring.

• IRAS ID

  170215

• Contact name

  Gideon Hirschfield

• Sponsor organisation

  University of Birmingham

• Duration of Study in the UK

  4 years, 11 months, 28 days

• Research summary

  Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) is one of the most powerful modalities for non-invasive diagnosis and monitoring of disease in clinical practice due to its excellent soft tissue contrast and high spatial resolution. However, manufacturers across the world only provide a handful of imaging sequences greatly limiting the capabilities of the MRI scanners. In MRI research, the development of new techniques is a driving force for the on-going expansion of clinical applications of MRI. Although some techniques are well known in the research community and shared in publications, they require implementation and validation on clinical MRI scanners before they can advance current clinical approaches. The implementation of these new imaging techniques requires reprogramming of the MRI scanners to enable them to perform those advanced scans. This process is carried out under a research agreement with the scanner manufacturers and only qualified MRI Physicists can do the reprogramming.
  There are three steps to validating a novel MRI technique for use in the clinical setting: the first is to “reprogram” the scanner to implement the technique; the second is to test the technique on specially designed artificial objects called “MRI phantoms” to assess functionality and image quality in the absence of patient motion and physiological changes; and the third step is to test the technique using healthy volunteers to assess its robustness in the case of scanning real people with a range of associated motion and physiological activity. This project aims to address all three of these steps in order to implement and validate novel MRI techniques allowing the development of advanced clinical applications of MRI scanners in our institution.
  The project is not specific to a particular area of imaging as the same MR sequences can be applied to multiple body parts upon simple optimisation of parameters.

• REC name

  West Midlands - South Birmingham Research Ethics Committee

• REC reference

  15/WM/0201

• Date of REC Opinion

  30 Jul 2015

• REC opinion

  Further Information Favourable Opinion