2018/03/24 by Johnes Obungoloch, Obungoloch, Johnes, Joshua Harper +11 · 1 citation
Medicine · Neuroscience · #Cerebrospinal fluid and hydrocephalus #FOS: Electrical engineering #FOS: Physical sciences #Fetal and Pediatric Neurological Disorders #Image and Video Processing (eess.IV) #Medical Physics (physics.med-ph) #Neonatal and fetal brain pathology #electronic engineering #information engineering
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1803.09075
openalex publication_date 2018/03/24 · openalex created_date 2022/09/28 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
The need for affordable and appropriate medical technologies for developing\ncountries continue to rise as challenges such as inadequate energy supply,\nlimited technical expertise and poor infrastructure persists. Low-field MRI is\na technology that can be tailored to meet specific imaging needs within such\ncountries. Its low power requirements and the possibility of operating in\nminimally shielded or unshielded environments make it especially attractive.\nAlthough the technology has been widely demonstrated over several decades, it\nis yet to be shown that it can be diagnostic and improve patient outcomes in\nclinical applications. We here demonstrate the robustness of pre-polarizing MRI\n(PMRI) technology for assembly and deployment in developing countries for the\nspecific application to infant hydrocephalus. Hydrocephalus treatment planning\nand management requires modest spatial resolution, and only that the brain can\nbe distinguished from fluid - tissue contrast detail within the brain\nparenchyma is not essential. We constructed an internally shielded PMRI system\nbased on the Lee-Whiting coil system with a 22 cm diameter of spherical volume.\nIn an unshielded room, projection phantom images were acquired at 113 kHz with\nin-plane resolution of 3 mm x 3 mm, by introducing gradient fields of\nsufficient magnitude to dominate the 5000ppm inhomogeneity of the readout\nfield. The low cost, straightforward assembly, deployment potential, and\nmaintenance requirements demonstrate the suitability of our PMRI system for\ndeveloping countries. Further improvement in the image spatial resolution and\ncontrast of low-field MRI will broaden its potential clinical utility beyond\nhydrocephalus.\n