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HIGHLY EFFICIENT CEREBRAL PERFUSION MRI

Award Number: R44NS084788
ORGANIZATION: NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF NEUROLOGICAL DISORDERS AND STROKE
OPDIV: NIH
AWARD CLASS: DISCRETIONARY
AWARD ACTIVITY TYPE: SCIENTIFIC/HEALTH RESEARCH (INCLUDES SURVEYS)
PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE START DATE: 04/01/2015
PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE END DATE: 03/31/2020

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HIGHLY EFFICIENT CEREBRAL PERFUSION MRI - DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): MRI cerebral perfusion imaging is a widely disseminated technique on nearly all MRI scanners used for clinical diagnosis of brain disease and for neuroscience research. Over the last five years there has been considerably increased use of arterial spin labeling (ASL) for clinical diagnosis, while still i.v. injections of a gadoliium based contrast bolus are widely used clinically. Both brain perfusion methods, ASL and DSC techniques, involve making images very fast to identify the passage of blood through the capillary compartment. The image signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) is limited by the small (e.g., 3%) fraction of blood in tissue volumes. This is proportionately small but a second limitation is the time window of imaging, which is constrained to about 500-700 milliseconds for the capillary phase of blood passage. Therefore, rapid imaging of blood inflow is essential. For this reason DSC contrast based methods and ASL with multi-slice 2D EPI have not been able to satisfactorily image perfusion in the entire brain except with thick slices hence reduced spatial resolution. 3D imaging has therefore been developed as an alternative to 2D EPI. However, 2D images have certain desirable characteristics compared with 3D if there are patient motion artifacts. To overcome these limitations we propose to develop novel technology to acquire images simultaneously instead of separately. This approach called simultaneous multi-slice imaging ASL (SMS ASL) and SMS DSC increases by several fold the number of images that are acquired during the limited time window of capillary perfusion phase so the whole brain can be imaged. Another benefit of SMS-ASL is that the time to scan the brain can be greatly reduced by avoiding repeated scans of different brain areas, thus, reducing motion artifacts. A second major innovation in this project is the Hadamard encoded ASL, which is highly useful in clinical studies where the blood arterial transit time (ATT) is not known as in normal aging of people. The Hadamard-ASL acquires images at several different inflow times (TI) to be sure to capture the capillary perfusion phase of blood in at least one set of images. By acquiring the different TI values in a well-defined sub-bolus partitioning of the labeling period, their combination gives separated images at the distinct TI with essentially 2x the SNR and half the net scan time as required by current methodology which acquires each TI data set independently and sequentially. Both the Hadamard and the SMS can be combined for further improvements in SNR, speed and spatial resolution. This will highly impact the accessibility to patients and the robustness of the perfusion technology in clinical use. The availability of the new simultaneous perfusion imaging technology will give clinicians and researchers the capability of performing significantly improved MRI perfusion measurements in patients and these improvements will impact the diagnosis of many different brain diseases, including stroke, leukoencephalopathies and degenerative diseases; i.e., Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease. Perfusion measurements of quantitative cerebral blood flow (CBF) and ATT are important quantitative biomarkers useful as physiological imaging in evaluating new drug therapies for brain diseases. This family of new perfusion imaging techniques utilizes more efficient pulse sequences that provide major advantages in resolution, slice coverage, SNR and speed. The new simultaneous imaging will have high utility and be highly desirable for use on clinical scanners worldwide. The improved quantitative MRI perfusion imaging offers overall increased efficiency that is highly commercializable given they provide improved diagnostic approaches to evaluate brain disease and further improve specificity and sensitivity in MRI neuroradiological exams. The new sequences will be designed, implemented and evaluated on MRI scanners operating at 1.5 Tesla at AMRIT, at 3T at University of California Berkeley and at 3T and 7T at University of California, San Francisco Medical Center and at Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Massachusetts General Hospital, and Harvard Medical School. Once the new perfusion sequences are optimized they will be further evaluated and optimized in collaborative clinical test sites of UCSF Medical Center, UCLA and University of Pennsylvania. In addition to establishing their value in neuroradiology exams, they will be made into useful tools for basic and clinical neuroscience research.


Issue Date FY	Funding FY	Legal Entity Name	Legal Entity Address	Legal Entity City	Legal Entity State	Legal Entity Zip Code	Legal Entity COUNTY	Legal Entity COUNTRY	Assistance Listing	Award Code	Budget Year	Action Date	Action Type	Action Amount

Issue Date FY: 2021 ( Subtotal = $0 )
2021	2017	ADVANCED MRI TECHNOLOGIES LLC	652 PETALUMA WAY STE I	SEBASTOPOL	CA	95472	SONOMA	USA	Extramural Research Programs in the Neurosciences and Neurological Disorders	000	4	12/8/2020	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$0
														Subtotal = $0

Issue Date FY: 2019 ( Subtotal = $0 )
2019	2017	ADVANCED MRI TECHNOLOGIES LLC	652 PETALUMA WAY STE I	SEBASTOPOL	CA	95472	SONOMA	USA	Extramural Research Programs in the Neurosciences and Neurological Disorders	000	4	4/12/2019	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$0
														Subtotal = $0

Issue Date FY: 2017 ( Subtotal = $688,265 )
2017	2017	ADVANCED MRI TECHNOLOGIES LLC	652 PETALUMA WAY STE I	SEBASTOPOL	CA	95472	SONOMA	USA	Extramural Research Programs in the Neurosciences and Neurological Disorders	001	4	6/7/2017	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$68,827
2017	2017	ADVANCED MRI TECHNOLOGIES LLC	652 PETALUMA WAY STE I	SEBASTOPOL	CA	95472	SONOMA	USA	Extramural Research Programs in the Neurosciences and Neurological Disorders	000	4	4/6/2017	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$619,438
														Subtotal = $688,265

Issue Date FY: 2016 ( Subtotal = $679,356 )
2016	2016	ADVANCED MRI TECHNOLOGY, INC	652 PETALUMA, SUITE J	SEBASTOPOL	CA	95472	SONOMA	USA	Extramural Research Programs in the Neurosciences and Neurological Disorders	000	3	3/16/2016	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$679,356
														Subtotal = $679,356

Issue Date FY: 2015 ( Subtotal = $745,093 )
2015	2015	ADVANCED MRI TECHNOLOGY, INC	652 PETALUMA, SUITE J	SEBASTOPOL	CA	95472	SONOMA	USA	Extramural Research Programs in the Neurosciences and Neurological Disorders	000	2	4/1/2015	EXTENSION WITH OR WITHOUT FUNDS	$745,093
														Subtotal = $745,093

Issue Date FY: 2014 ( Subtotal = $0 )
2014	2013	ADVANCED MRI TECHNOLOGY, INC	652 PETALUMA, SUITE J	SEBASTOPOL	CA	95472	SONOMA	USA	Extramural Research Programs in the Neurosciences and Neurological Disorders	000	1	8/7/2014	NEW	$0
														Subtotal = $0

Issue Date FY: 2013 ( Subtotal = $400,706 )
2013	2013	ADVANCED MRI TECHNOLOGY, INC	652 PETALUMA, SUITE J	SEBASTOPOL	CA	95472	SONOMA	USA	Extramural Research Programs in the Neurosciences and Neurological Disorders	000	1	8/19/2013	NEW	$400,706
														Subtotal = $400,706

Grand Total All Awards = $2,513,420

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HIGHLY EFFICIENT CEREBRAL PERFUSION MRI

Award Number: R44NS084788

ORGANIZATION: NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF NEUROLOGICAL DISORDERS AND STROKE

OPDIV: NIH

AWARD CLASS: DISCRETIONARY

AWARD ACTIVITY TYPE: SCIENTIFIC/HEALTH RESEARCH (INCLUDES SURVEYS)

PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE START DATE: 04/01/2015

PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE END DATE: 03/31/2020

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