Browse Topic: Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)

Items (115)

Acute repetitive brain injury (rTBI) can occur in a pedestrian collision when the head hits the vehicle and the ground twice in a short period of time. In this paper, an animal model of acute rTBI was established to investigate the cumulative effects of repetitive brain injury under different combinations of impact levels. 117 adult male SD rats (190±20g) were divided into control, single impact and repeated impact groups, with the single impact group divided into three subgroups of mild, moderate and severe, and the repeated impact group divided into nine subgroups by combining mild, moderate and severe, and kinematic response parameters of the rat's head were obtained by high-speed camera and acceleration sensor. Modified neurological severity score (mNSS) was performed at 1h, 3h and 6h after injury; brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was detected at 6h after injury. Brain tissue was assessed macroscopically and the severity of injury was quantified using the abbreviated injury

Li, Kui, Wang, Peng, Song, Xuewei, Qiu, Jinlong, Zhao, Hui

Using Computer Tomography Images to Simulate Heart Function

TBMG-3821312/01/2020

Computer tomography systems, also known as CT scanners, are found in most hospitals. They can be used for a simple investigation to rapidly determine whether a patient has cardiovascular disease — problems with calcification of the blood vessels that supply the heart with oxygen. The investigation is quick and the patient can go home immediately following the scan. If it is suspected that something is wrong, however, it means a significantly longer and more complicated investigation, where the patient must spend the night in a hospital.

High-Performance, Low-Field MRI for Cardiac and Lung Imaging

TBMG-3796911/01/2020

A low-magnetic-field MRI system was developed that vastly improves image quality of the lungs and other internal structures of the human body. The low-field system may also be safer for patients with pacemakers or defibrillators, quieter, and easier to maintain and install.

Imaging Technology Could Improve Cancer Surgery

TBMG-3799911/01/2020

A new imaging technology uses the way light from lasers interacts with cancerous and healthy tissues to distinguish between them in real time and with no physical contact — an advancement with the potential to eliminate the need for secondary surgeries to get missed malignant tissue. Intraoperatively, during surgery, the surgeon will be able to see exactly what to cut and how much to cut.

Powering Up Medtech’s Modalities: Top Trends and Design Considerations

TBMG-37350

08/01/2020

We are living in a digitally integrated and connected world. Evidenced by the use of smartphones, smartwatches, and other smart devices, there is no ending this trend. This holds true across many industries and applications, but is especially prevalent within medtech devices — a market that’s predicted to reach $432.6 billion by 2025.1

Facility Focus: National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering

TBMG-3721207/01/2020

The National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB) in Bethesda, MD, is one of the 27 institutes and centers of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the nation’s premier medical research agency. The mission of the NIBIB is to improve human health by leading the development and accelerating the application of biomedical technologies.

Stretchable, Wearable Coils May Make MRI, Other Medical Tests Easier on Patients

TBMG-3691405/01/2020

Anyone who has had a mammogram or an MRI knows how uncomfortable and awkward the tests can be. Now, Purdue University researchers have taken technology used in the defense and aerospace industries to create a novel way of doing some medical imaging.

Development of a Subhuman Primate Brain Finite Element Model to Investigate Brain Injury Thresholds Induced by Head Rotation

2019-22-000303/31/2020

An anatomically detailed rhesus monkey brain FE model was developed to simulate in vivo responses of the brain of sub-human primates subjected to rotational accelerations resulting in diffuse axonal injury (DAI). The material properties used in the monkey model are those in the GHBMC 50th percentile male head model (Global Human Body Model Consortium). The angular loading simulations consisted of coronal, oblique and sagittal plane rotations with the center of rotation in neck to duplicate experimental conditions. Maximum principal strain (MPS) and Cumulative strain damage measure (CSDM) were analyzed for various white matter structures such as the cerebrum subcortical white matter, corpus callosum and brainstem. The MPS in coronal rotation were 45% to 54% higher in the brainstem, 8% to 48% higher in the corpus callosum, 13% to 22% higher in the white matter when compared to those in oblique and sagittal rotations, suggesting that more severe DAI was expected from coronal and oblique

Arora, Tushar, Zhang, Liying, Prasad, Priya

Iron Nanorobots Destroy Cancer Cells

TBMG-3623803/01/2020

Drug-coated iron nanowires that can be guided to the site of a tumor using an external magnetic field before activating a three-step cancer-killing mechanism could provide an effective option for cancer therapy.

3D Inductor Technology Expands Microchip Capability

TBMG-3617903/01/2020

Engineers have boosted the performance of 3D inductor technology by adding as much as three orders of magnitude more induction to meet the performance demands of modern electronic devices.

Low-Field MRI Improves Lung, Cardiac Imaging

TBMG-3577301/01/2020

National Institutes of Health researchers, along with researchers at Siemens, have developed a high-performance, low-magnetic-field MRI system that vastly improves image quality of the lungs and other internal structures of the human body. The new system is more compatible with interventional devices that could greatly enhance image-guided procedures that diagnose and treat disease, and the system makes medical imaging more affordable and accessible for patients.

Magnetic Metamaterial Could Improve MRIs

TBMG-3577201/01/2020

Researchers have developed a low-cost, “intelligent” metamaterial that could revolutionize magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), making the entire MRI process faster, safer, and more accessible to patients around the world.

Diamond Technology Enables Low-Cost Medical Imaging

TBMG-3543511/01/2019

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machines are employed to locate cancerous tumors and aid in the development of treatment plans, while nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) machines are used to examine the atomic-scale structure and chemistry of drug compounds and other molecules. Diamonds are the key to a technique that could provide a very-low-cost alternative to these expensive medical imaging and drug discovery devices.

Hydration Sensor Could Improve Dialysis

TBMG-3534410/01/2019

A new portable sensor can accurately measure patients’ hydration levels using a technique known as nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) relaxometry. Such a device could be useful for not only dialysis patients but also people with congestive heart failure, as well as athletes and elderly people who may be in danger of becoming dehydrated.

MRI Sensor Can Image Activity Deep Within the Brain

TBMG-3443005/01/2019

A new way to image calcium activity is based on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and allows them researchers to peer much deeper into the brain. Using this technique, they can track signaling processes inside the neurons of living animals, enabling them to link neural activity with specific behaviors.

Patch Improves Care for NICU Babies

TBMG-3443505/01/2019

When a baby is placed into a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), its vitals are continuously recorded through electrodes placed on the skin with wires attached to monitoring platforms. Researchers are working to replace the wires with a patch that would allow parents to hold their little one while it's being monitored.

Customizing Implants With 3D Image Processing

TBMG-3356201/01/2019

Long-term patient comfort is a key part in any implant surgeries. Accurate placements of implants, of knees, hips, and other medical devices, is crucial to reducing the risk of discomfort and the need for costly revision surgeries. Custom-designed implants and simulation is a field of growing importance, giving clinicians and designers freedom to tailor designs for patients and make more informed surgical decisions. In addition to streamlining the manufacturing process, this approach enables multiple implant variations and pathologies to be considered at the virtual stage through additive manufacturing. This is as opposed to finding and correcting problems through trial and error.

Algorithm Enables Faster Analysis of Medical Images

TBMG-3338612/01/2018

Medical image registration is a common technique that involves overlaying two images, such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans, to compare and analyze anatomical differences in great detail. If a patient has a brain tumor, for instance, doctors can overlap a brain scan from several months ago onto a more recent scan to analyze small changes in the tumor's progress.

Wireless System Pinpoints Location of Ingestible Implants

TBMG-3320711/01/2018

An “in-body GPS” system was developed that can pinpoint the location of ingestible implants inside the body using low-power wireless signals. These implants could be used as tiny tracking devices on shifting tumors to help monitor their slight movements. The system, called ReMix, can track the implants with centimeter-level accuracy.

MR Coil for High-Quality Imaging

TBMG-3306510/01/2018

Researchers have developed and tested an MR coil for high-quality imaging of the whole mouse. Such coils are required for preclinical studies of drugs, as well as for targeted examination of various body systems. Due to the design features, the new coil provides three times higher image quality than a commercial volume MR coil, usually used in such studies. The coil is low cost, and the manufacturing technology can be adapted for different studies.

Improved 3D Printing for Patient-Specific Medical Diagnosis

TBMG-2975307/01/2018

What if you could hold a physical model of your own brain in your hands, accurate down to its every unique fold? That's just a normal part of life for Steven Keating, PhD, who had a baseball-sized tumor removed from his brain at age 26 while he was a graduate student in the MIT Media Lab's Mediated Matter Group. Curious to see what his brain actually looked like before the tumor was removed, and with the goal of better understanding his diagnosis and treatment options, Keating collected his medical data and began 3D printing his MRI and CT scans, but was frustrated that existing methods were prohibitively time-intensive and cumbersome and failed to accurately reveal important features of interest. Keating reached out to some of his group's collaborators, including members of the Wyss Institute at Harvard University, who were exploring a new method for 3D printing biological samples.

Erasable Contrast Agents Blink On/Off

TBMG-2913906/01/2018

Researchers are working on “erasable” contrast agents that would have the ability to blink off, on command, thereby revealing their location in the body.

Evaluating Electronics Contract Manufacturers for Medical Devices

TBMG-2910006/01/2018

The ideal contract manufacturer is more than a transactional supplier; rather, it is a partner that improves the product and process. Printed circuit boards (PCBs) and electronic box build assemblies are critically important in the medical field. Today, most medical devices used in healthcare settings to diagnose, test, or treat patients, as well as devices critical to laboratory research, rely on PCBs in one way or another.

Optical Ultrasound Needle for Heart Surgery

TBMG-2816101/01/2018

Doctors currently rely on external ultrasound probes, combined with pre-operative imaging scans, to visualize soft tissue and organs during minimally invasive procedures, as the miniature surgical instruments used do not support internal ultrasound imaging.

Therapy Robots a Step Closer to Reality

TBMG-2813001/01/2018

In tests, a swarm of robots measuring a few millionths of a meter long — about the size of a blood cell — were guided magnetically to sites in the stomach of rats. The robots were manufactured by coating tiny algae with magnetic particles. They could be tracked in tissue close to the skin's surface by imaging the algae's natural fluorescence, and in hard-to-reach deeper tissue by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

Biopsy Robot Can Be Used in an MRI Scanner

TBMG-2772410/01/2017

A biopsy robot made from 3D printed plastic can be used in an MRI scanner. The advantage of plastic is that the robot can carry out a biopsy (removing a piece of tissue) during a breast cancer scan in an MRI, which significantly increases accuracy. The Stormram 4 is a stimulus for the entire diagnostic phase of breast cancer; the accurate needle control, effectively real-time MRI scanning and a single, thin-needle biopsy enable quicker and more accurate diagnoses to be made. The researchers believe medical robotics is sure to become standard procedure in hospitals in the near future.

Neuroimaging Technique May Help Predict Autism Among High-Risk Infants

TBMG-2756509/01/2017

According to a recent study, functional connectivity magnetic resonance imaging (fcMRI) may predict which high-risk, 6-month-old infants will develop autism spectrum disorder by age 2 years.

New Technique Makes Brain Scans Better

TBMG-2732108/01/2017

People who suffer a stroke often undergo a brain scan at the hospital, allowing doctors to determine the location and extent of the damage. Researchers who study the effects of strokes would love to be able to analyze these images, but the resolution is often too low for many analyses.

3D Printable Implants May Ease Damaged Knees

TBMG-2701306/01/2017

A cartilage-mimicking material created by researchers at Duke University may one day allow surgeons to 3D print replacement knee parts that are custom-shaped to each patient's anatomy.

Superconducting Coil Improves MRI Performance

TBMG-2530610/01/2016

A multidisciplinary research team led by University of Houston scientist Jarek Wosik has developed a high-temperature superconducting coil that allows magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanners to produce higher resolution images or acquire images in a shorter time than when using conventional coils. Test results show that the new technology can reveal brain structures that are not easily visualized with conventional MRI coils.

High Field Superconducting Magnets

TBMG-2516508/01/2016

This superconducting magnet developed at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center comprises a superconducting wire wound in adjacent turns about a mandrel to form the superconducting magnet; a thermally conductive potting material configured to fill interstices between the adjacent turns; and a voltage limiting device disposed across each end of the superconducting wire, and is configured to prevent a voltage excursion across the superconducting wire during quench of the superconducting magnet. The thermally conductive potting material and the superconducting wire provide a path for dissipation of heat.

Metamaterials Can Enhance Sensitivity of MRI Machines

TBMG-2490306/01/2016

Multilayer Insulation Systems

TBMG-2424904/01/2016

Cryogenic fluid management (CFM) is a critical technical area that is needed for the successful development of future space exploration. A key challenge is the storability of LH2, LCH4, and LOX propellants for long durations. The storage tanks must be well insulated to prevent over-pressurization and venting, which lead to unacceptable propellant losses for long-duration missions to Mars and beyond.

3D-Printed Airways Continue to Save Lives

TBMG-2391202/01/2016

Previously, Medical Design Briefs reported on a baby boy whose life was saved using a custom 3D-printed tracheal splint, a groundbreaking procedure pioneered at the University of Michigan. He is now nearly four years old. Since that time, a 14-year-old girl has now joined the list of three baby boys and one baby girl who’ve received novel 3D-printed tracheal splints to treat a congenital breathing condition called tracheobronchomalasia (TBM), which causes tracheal walls to collapse. All five are alive and thriving, thanks to the technology and the surgical procedures that helped their collapsed airways function normally.

Thermal Invisibility Cloak Actively Redirects Heat

TBMG-2318710/16/2015

Light, sound, and now, heat. Just as optical invisibility cloaks can bend and diffract light to shield an object from sight, and specially fabricated acoustic metamaterials can hide an object from sound waves, a recently developed thermal cloak can render an object thermally invisible by actively redirecting incident heat.

Enhancing MRI Contrast by Geometrical Confinement of Small Imaging Agents Within Nanoporous Particles

TBMG-22201

06/01/2015

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has evolved into one of the most powerful, non-invasive diagnostic imaging techniques in medicine and biomedical research. The superior resolution and in-depth anatomical details provided by MRI are essential for early diagnosis of many diseases. Chemical contrast agents (CAs) have been widely used for improving the sensitivity and diagnostic confidence in MRI.

Silicone: Expanding the Horizon for Today’s Medical Devices

TBMG-2206605/01/2015

Silicone materials have been around for more than 70 years and since the 1960s have played an important and evolving part in products designed for the medical field. Since that time, silicone materials have been developed in various medical grades for skin contact, as well as short-term and long-term implantation. These materials can be formed into products using compression molding, transfer molding, and injection molding. This provides engineers, designers, and inventors with a high level of flexibility when selecting a molding process to produce their medical devices. Medical devices such as tubing for medical diagnostic systems to drug delivery devices like tear duct (punctual) plugs have been produced out of silicone.

Shape-Shifting GEM Sensor Responds to Radio Frequencies

TBMG-2191104/01/2015

Geometrically encoded magnetic sensors (GEMs), developed by researchers from National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH), react to local biochemical conditions by changing their shape and response to radio frequencies.

Visualization of fMRI Network Data

TBMG-21625

03/01/2015

Functional connections within the brain can be revealed through functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), which shows simultaneous activations of blood flow in the brain during response tests. However, fMRI specialists currently do not have a tool for visualizing the complex data that comes from fMRI scans. They work with correlation matrices that table what functional region connections exist, but they have no corresponding visualization.

Infrared ‘Optical Biopsy’ Reveals Tumors and Lesions

TBMG-21091

12/01/2014

A new medical imaging method being developed at Rutgers University could help physicians detect cancer and other diseases earlier than before, speeding treatment and reducing the need for invasive, time-consuming biopsies.