Magnetic Particle Imaging (MPI) enables real-time tracking of magnetic nanoparticles and offers a wide range of potential medical applications. MPI is particularly well suited for imaging blood flow and thus vessels and organs. As MPI devices can be utilized to be low power mobile devices the technology is suited for clinical usage where immobile imaging modalities like MRI or CT cannot be used, e.g. the intensive care unit.
With optimized pick-up coils MPI is suitable to detect the 3D flow dynamic of a tracer into the brain without gating techniques at very high frame rates (46 frames/s). We investigate the impact of the new pick up coil in a mouse model in case of an ischemic stroke and hemorrhage. Furthermore, we present a prototype of a clinical scale MPI stroke detection system.
The increased sensitivity of the coil not only reduces the detection limit compared to body coils, but it also allows to improve the spatial resolution, so that even small vessels and anatomical structures can be detected in a mouse model. While ischemic stroke is already well visible in the native MPI images, digital subtraction of the images is needed for the detection of hemorrhage. Furthermore, by using multi-contrast reconstruction techniques, it is even possible to distinguish liquid and coagulated blood.
MPI provides high resolution, high sensitivity and fast perfusion imaging. The clinical scale has proven to be feasible while the technology is on the edge to enter clinical in-vivo imaging.
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