Summary: UCLA researchers in the Department of Neurosurgery have developed a miniature flexible radiofrequency coil for MRI for the detection of small pathological lesions. Background: Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a widely-used medical imaging modality, which can produce clear and contrasted pictures of human anatomy by utilizing magnetism and radio waves. Because of its reduced risk to patients, MRI technology is preferred over other traditional imaging technologies such as X-rays and CT scans. The aging population and increases in chronic diseases, such as cancer, cardiovascular diseases and diabetes, are expected to drive the global market for MRI instruments, which would reach over $7.4 billion by 2023 at a compound annual growth rate of 5.0%. A current major defect in MRI technology is its poor spatial resolution. An example of this drawback is its inability to detect up to 50% of brain tumors in Cushing’s disease. One of the common factors limiting MRI spatial resolution is signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). Advancements with flexible radiofrequency (RF) coils have been made, as they constitute a major component of MRI scanners that are used to create and receive signals. However, these coils may cause patient discomfort or block the surgical corridor completely. Thus, there is a strong clinical need for RF coil arrays to improve the resolution of MRI for the detection of small pathological lesions while keeping them simple, small and flexible.
Innovation: Professor Bergsneider and his research team have invented an RF coil for small field-of-view (FOV) MRI that enables more effective detection of small pathological lesions compared to current commercially available models. This miniature RF coil is flexible and can be configured into different designs. The placement of the coil to the region of interest is simple and remote fine-tuning of it is allowed. This innovation, compared to the commercial head coil, is able to achieve up to a 19-fold SNR improvement with low error rates, and such enhancement would directly translate into an improved MRI scanning result. Specifically, when a patient undergoes an intra-operative MRI scan, a previously unidentifiable lesion would now be observed with immediate interpretation. Additionally, the approach, which utilizes numerical simulations to develop coil design and then cross-validates the simulation and the experiment, is modular and easily adaptable. The same improvements in SNR, therefore, would be achievable with different MRI scanners, and this approach can be extended to the future coil design prototyping and optimization.
Potential Applications: MRI imaging MRI-guided surgery Future coil design prototyping and optimization (cross-validation approach)
Advantages: High-resolution imaging (19× SNR improvement compared to the commercial counterparts) Allows fine-tuning the coil remotely Avoids common surgical complications Various coil configurations available Applicable with different MRI scanners Sterilizable intracavity portion Biocompatible, waterproof and heat-insulated coating
Development to Date: First description of complete invention: 6/01/2021.
Reference: UCLA Case No. 2022-048