ISMRM 2022 Abstract announcement

The annual meeting of ISMRM of 2022 will be held from May 7-12 in London, UK. The organizers have announced abstract acceptance results last week. Approximately 5000 abstracts were accepted in various presentation formats. From the work done in 2021 by the CIEL team, the abstract by Seulki Yoo ("Investigation of MR visibility control of water-based (CaTiO3) dielectric padding with iron oxide contrast agent in 7T human brain MRI") was accepted for poster presentation. This interesting work explores a method to reduce MR visibility of water-based dielectric padding, used to improve B1 homogeneity at 7T. We had found that conventional calcium titanium oxide-based padding is often highly visible in T1 weighted images which hindered brain segmentation. Adding commercially available iron nanoparticles to the padding made it completely invisible in T1 images, by virtue of T2* being shortened below ~2 ms. Importantly, the amount of iron needed to do this did not contribute significant susceptibility artifacts, making this method an effective and practical means to "discreetly" address RF homogeneity at 7T.

On the other hand, the more theory-oriented abstract on BOLD signal suppression in DIANA imaging was not accepted. Given the high interest in direct neuronal activity imaging, this decision is somewhat puzzling and disheartening, but it is also true that the whole field is highly competitive and often controversial, so purely theoretical work can be met with high level of skepticism. The work -- a rigorous analysis of how slow-varying pixel amplitude changes translate into (suppressed) dynamic image contrast in 2D k-space line-scan imaging -- will be further refined and packaged for another venue of publication.

   

GE Global Research site on the news

 The main lobby of GE Global Research was on the news on Friday (https://cbs6albany.com/news/local/us-energy-secretary-tours-ge-research-facility-with-gillibrand-tonko), on the occasion of a visit from the US Secretary of Energy, accompanied by a NY Senator and a Congressman. They had a photo opportunity in front of the Edison's desk, prominently on display in one corner of the lobby. The main purpose for the visit appears to have been on clean energy and local jobs, but it gave a chance for the research center as a whole to be in the spotlight.

Mayo clinic's compact 3T scanner

This is the world's smallest 3T head scanner capable of 80 mT/m gradient performance. Locally known as MR55, this is now one of the many MRI scanners used in Mayo Clinic for human brain studies. The blue and red tapes on the floor indicate 100 G and 300 G, respectively, indicating how fast the magnetic field falls off away from the scanner. These pictures were taken on Dec 17th, 2021, when the scanner was undergoing a scheduled upgrade. 

icMRI 2021

 This year's icMRI conference was held in a hybrid format on November 5-6, with many in-person sessions especially for domestic participants. The CIEL team has presented two posters in MR Engineering, based on work that was done prior to August 2021. There were a total of 24 MR Engineering posters including power-pitch presentations.

Pete Roemer on screen

 

Pete Roemer, physicist and inventor of NMR phased array, appeared on screen in this year's high field MRI workshop hosted on-line by the university of Minnesota on Oct 20-22. He has recently retired from GE Healthcare, and is apparently working as a private consultant to Stanford University on gradient coils. He presented  his computational work on PNS (peripheral nerve stimulation) and MGI (magnet-gradient interaction) in high-field MRI. It was a rare and welcome opportunity to peek into contemporary research in gradient coil engineering from the eyes of a legendary expert in the field.

MRI accident in news

In October several news outlets reported a fatal accident involving an oxygen tank pulled into an MRI machine. The accident happened on October 14th in a South Korean city of Kim-hae, and killed a man in his 60s. A quick internet search revealed a few details:

- The hospital where this happened was Kap-Eul general hospital in the town of Jangyoo-dong.

- The hospital homepage lists a GE HDxt scanner (1.5T) as their MRI equipment.

- The hospital did not use the available in-room oxygen supply, and the tank was on a wheeled carrier which was also pulled into the magnet.

One thing that many news reports are saying incorrectly is that the MRI machine attracted the tank as the scan started, which ignores the fact that the magnetic field is always on. What must have happened is that the tank was moved, possibly slightly, by somebody and fell over the "magnetic cliff" near the bore entrance. Then its flying as a projectile is uncontrollable. This is tragic, and makes one wish to have some kind of magnetic barrier set up around the scanner. Above to the left is a drawing I made for an MRI engineering course in SKKU illustrating the abrupt magnetic pull of a shielded MRI magnet. 

On-line undergraduate research presentation

With the COVID crisis deepening yet again, this summer's undergraduate research presentation was done in an on-line format, using Microsoft Teams, on July 21. Sadly, this may well be the last official group activity for the members of CIEL; it is only hoped that less official activities and networking would continue among the members who have shared the same lab space for years. The presenter was Seok-Jin Yeo, a senior who has worked in the Lab since 2018. Mr. Yeo spoke about his work in the past semester (and year) on extending the susceptibility-induced B0 calculation algorithm to arbitrary orientations. This work combined many research elements in it -- good amount of mathematics, Matlab simulations, and experimental measurements of magnetic fields with a Hall probe and by MRI. The presentation was effective, and the on-line platform was satisfactory in engaging the audience from multiple locations smoothly. Thank you all who participated in the meeting!