An MR-Compatible System for Motion Emulation
SUMMARY
Researchers at UCLA from the Departments of Mechanical Engineering and Radiological Sciences have developed a magnetic resonance (MR) compatible device that can emulate respiratory motion.
BACKGROUND
Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is an essential tool of modern medicine. The ability to simulate clinical conditions provides a means for physicians to perfect their techniques using MRI guidance and for scientists to engineer better hardware and processing for clearer images. Phantoms made of gelatin can simulate various body parts, but they do not simulate patient movement due to respiration, which can drastically affect image quality and introduce artifacts. A phantom that can simulate this respiratory movement is in high demand, as currently animals and robots are used for these simulations. However, animals have a high degree of variance and are not configurable to meet the needs of developers. Robots are configurable, but their components are unsafe around MRI machines and can distort the acquired images.
INNOVATION
Researchers at UCLA from the Departments of Mechanical Engineering and Radiological Sciences have developed a magnetic resonance- (MR-) compatible device that can emulate respiratory motion. Unlike other devices on the market, the lack of ferrometallic or electromagnetic components makes this device completely MR-compatible. This device can move 25 mm in one direction to mimic human respiration, but an amplifier can increase this range to 50 mm to mimic larger respiratory profiles. Their invention can emulate pre-recorded respiratory profiles from patients with less than 2% error and sub-millimeter error with amplification. This device is flexible in its ability to emulate multiple different respiration profiles and can help physicians and scientists develop novel and better MR techniques.
APPLICATIONS
- Simulating respiration movements in organs for MRI
- Developing new MR methodologies and clinical MRI-guided techniques
ADVANTAGES
- No ferrometallic or electromagnetic parts to be completely MR-compatible
- Little error when emulating patient respiration
- Flexibility: can emulate many different patient profiles; movement can be amplified up to 50 mm to accommodate larger profiles
- Less variance and more configurability than using animals