The feasibility of Quadrupole Dip Imaging with PMRI: focus on multiple sclerosis
Abstract
Magnetic Resonance (MR) techniques provide valuable information for the diagnosis, monitoring, treatment, and study of many diseases. However, limitations on the sensitivity and specificity warrant the development of new imaging techniques. Quadrupole Dip Imaging (QDI) is a novel MR technique based on the magnitude of the quadrupole dip in the T₁ dispersion profile of substances containing rotationally immobilized proteins. The implementation of QDI requires field-cycled (FC) relaxometry. Prepolarized NM (PNW could potentially provide a low-cost way to conduct FC experiments and thus implement QDI. I have conducted a literature review and analysis to predict the value of using QDI to study Multiple Sclerosis (MS), to determine the feasibility of implementing QDI with PMRI, and to identify obstacles to successful penetration of the technology to the clinical environment. QDI could potentially be used to non-invasively create protein density maps in vivo, which could provide clinically valuable information on the histopathological substrate of MS that is not available through present imaging techniques. It appears that this information will be most valuable for studies of the development and nature of the diseases instead of for diagnosis and disease monitoring. Factors that will affect the development and dissemination of QDI with PNM include the development of PMRI T₁-measuring pulse sequences that are robust to inhomogeneity and field ramping, the inherently small signal and dynamic range of QDI, and MR hardware acquisition trends towards high-field devices. QDI with PMRI will probably maintain or exceed conventional MRI safety, patient tolerance, and cost. I have also conducted experiments that demonstrate that PNM can, in fact, be used to create dispersion profiles. Using the home-made PNM scanner at the Magnetic Resonance Systems Laboratory at Texas A&M I have verified the linearity of SNR with increasing prepolarizing field strength and demonstrated qualitatively the feasibility of T₁ measurement at different field strengths for CuSO₄ (aq) and Bovine Serum Albumin/gluteraldehyde phantoms.
Description
Due to the character of the original source materials and the nature of batch digitization, quality control issues may be present in this document. Please report any quality issues you encounter to digital@library.tamu.edu, referencing the URI of the item.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 80-97).
Citation
Jeter, Edward Hilton (2001). The feasibility of Quadrupole Dip Imaging with PMRI: focus on multiple sclerosis. Texas A&M University. Available electronically from https : / /hdl .handle .net /1969 .1 /ETD -TAMU -2001 -Fellows -Thesis -J48.