MR microscopy with human 3T MRI

The topic of MR microscopy is an old one. However, the IBS CNIR is uniquely positioned to put such a technique to good use, with numerous occasions to need multi-modality (optical and magnetic) imaging of ex vivo tissue samples from a variety of animals. In that regard, we have been looking into making an RF coil that is particularly suited to image thin flat objects, such as a brain slice mounted on a glass slide. Such a coil is known as "histology coil" and was developed originally by the Penn State group several years ago. Now students from Gachon University, working as undergraduate interns in the lab, made one such coil tuned at 123.25 MHz for use in our 3T MRI machine. The picture above shows a 40 um-think rat brain slice imaged at 3T with the special coil. It is impressive that although the imaging time was a good fraction of an hour, one can image such a thin slice in a human MRI scanner. Surely this will improve at 7T, 9.4T and higher which are all available in our building. This raises hope that we can soon produce research quality images of histology samples and push it for quantitative MR parameter mapping, and pursue other fun (crazy) research ideas.

Autumn is here! and events of the month

Autumn colors have descended on the SKKU Natural Sciences Campus. The semester is half done and from tomorrow begins the midterm exam week. Unlike the past couple of years, October this year has been relatively calm in the N Center without large center-wide events. A few things that have happened earlier this month are as follows. In reverse chronological order,

- October 20th (Sat): KSMRM's annual MRI training day for medical doctors was held in Catholic University St. Mary's Hospital in Seoul. Dr. Lee SK gave a lecture on k space. In all, 12 educational talks were delivered by the PhDs in each area of MRI.

- October 19th (Fri): Samsung Medical Center held the 5th Joint Symposium on Radiology with the Osaka University in Japan. This was held at the Cancer Center building of SMC, Seoul, and Dr. Lee SK gave a talk on 7T MRI at SKKU.

- October 15th (Mon): KSMRM staff gathered at a restaurant near the Seoul Train Station to discuss organizing a PhD-only workshop in November.

- October 4th (Thurs): The biannual graduate school open-house event took place in the main library and at the N Center. Student turnout for the BME department was similar to the last year (between 10 and 20).

SMC neurology team visit

A team of medical doctors from the SMC Neurology department visited the SKKU Suwon campus as part of the biannual collaboration meeting between SMC and CNIR. After short presentations by Dr. EH Baek and Dr. YM Sohn, the participants exchanged ideas on mutual collaboration in the fields of ex-vivo high resolution MRI of post operation tissue specimens and human 7T structural MRI using the Terra scanner at SKKU. The meeting proceeded over a working dinner in the 3rd floor meeting room, followed by a tour of the 7T magnet room where the head coil installation and patient table motion were demonstrated. There appears to be much potential for new research directions involving 7T. From today's discussion, high resolution imaging of cerebellum and hippocampus could be one of the first clinical research targets.

Memorandum of Understanding

New semester started with an external event involving official launching of the human 7T MRI scanner facility. The event was held on Friday 9/7 at the N Center with the University President and the Siemens senior management in attendance. Many students in the BME department's MRI research labs were also present. The event was covered in the school and public media as shown here. Apart from external exposure, the event provided an opportunity for the university and industry leaders to meet one another, and motivate young students to conduct their research in human MRI at SKKU.

7T MRI scanner user training

On August 1-3, Siemens provided a 3 day hands-on training for the general users of the 7T Terra system. Led by Dr. Ioannis Giapitzakis and Mr. Jongmoon Hahm, the educational sessions held in the N Center were well attended and helpful. The training consisted of a couple of lectures on high-field MR safety and principles, and demonstrations and practices on the center's new 7T scanner with plenty of user-instructor interactions. The system is currently not approved (by the Korean government) for routine patient scans, nor is yet cleared for research use on human subjects by the SKKU's institutional review board. So this time, the training included scans only on phantoms. What was particularly useful was detailed explanation/demo on general features of the scanner's user interface, which in large part are common between the 3T and the 7T scanners in the Center. This gave a chance to clear/resolve some of the doubts about scanner operation that many people have had before. The training sessions will continue when human scans are approved for either research or clinical use. For now animal and phantom scans can proceed without much delay. It does appear that the 7T system is well constructed for basic-level scans as a commercial product. It is noted that features and functions from the 3T scanner are relatively seamlessly transferred to the 7T system, to the benefit of both the users and the manufacturer.

Summer Intership concluded

The 2018 CNIR/BME summer internship program was concluded on Friday 7/20, with a poster presentation by about 10 students/student pairs. For the lab, the summer project ended up being not one of the titles suggested in the previous web log, but was on gradient waveform changes according to peripheral nerve stimulation (PNS) control. This was fruitful, and the students, Seul LEE and Doyeon KIM, liked the project. This has a potential for a local/international MRI conference presentation, and perhaps a quick journal publication after more data be collected. The other teams also appear to have achieved something presentable, given the overall quality and content of the other posters. In the MRI-related projects, there were numerical validation of accelerated imaging (SMASH, GRAPPA), and lung image segmentation and respiratory gating tool development, all in Matlab. Good job and congratulations to all the summer students!

ISMRM conference at Paris

The 26th Annual Meeting of ISMRM was held in Paris, France, from 6/16 to 6/21. Many students and researchers from SKKU attended the meeting to enjoy the summer days in the popular western European destination and network with global friends. From the lab, Ms. Seulki Yoo presented a (paper) poster as well as a short oral presentation in the Electromagnetic Properties Study group on her habenula QSM research. Dr. Lee presented an e-Poster on multi-orientation B1 mapping. The MRM editorial board meeting was held on Tuesday 6/19 where the journal's latest status was presented/discussed by Dr. Bernstein. In the MRM deputy editors' luncheon event, Peter Barker (Johns Hopkins) and Peter Jezzard (Oxford), both of whom had attended the icMRI conference in Seoul in March, appreciated their stay in Korea as being very positive. It appeared that this year's ISMRM conference was well attended and much liked by many attendees. Particularly useful were several "Member-initiated symposia" on timely topics: QSM, PNS, portable MRI, and others.