Regional metabolite T2 in the healthy rhesus macaque brain at 7T

Design and application of a multimodality-compatible 1Tx/6Rx RF coil for monkey brain MRI at 7T

OBJECTIVE

Blood-oxygen-level-dependent functional MRI allows to investigte neural activities and connectivity. While the non-human primate plays an essential role in neuroscience research, multimodal methods combining functional MRI with other neuroimaging and neuromodulation enable us to understand the brain network at multiple scales.

APPROACH

In this study, a tight-fitting helmet-shape receive array with a single transmit loop for anesthetized macaque brain MRI at 7T was fabricated with four openings constructed in the coil housing to accommodate multimodal devices, and the coil performance was quantitatively evaluated and compared to a commercial knee coil. In addition, experiments over three macaques with infrared neural stimulation (INS), focused ultrasound stimulation (FUS), and transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) were conducted.

MAIN RESULTS

The RF coil showed higher transmit efficiency, comparable homogeneity, improved SNR and enlarged signal coverage over the macaque brain. Infrared neural stimulation was applied to the amygdala in deep brain region, and activations in stimulation sites and connected sites were detected, with the connectivity consistent with anatomical information. Focused ultrasound stimulation was applied to the left visual cortex, and activations were acquired along the ultrasound traveling path, with all time course curves consistent with pre-designed paradigms. The existence of transcranial direct current stimulation electrodes brought no interference to the RF system, as evidenced through high-resolution MPRAGE structure images.

SIGNIFICANCE

This pilot study reveals the feasibility for brain investigation at multiple spatiotemporal scales, which may advance our understanding in dynamic brain networks.

Rapid multi-echo measurement of brain metabolite T₂ values at 7 T using a single-shot spectroscopic Carr-Purcell-Meiboom-Gill sequence and prior information

We present a method for the robust and accurate estimation of brain metabolite transverse relaxation times (T2 ) from multiple spin-echo data acquired with a single-shot Carr-Purcell-Meiboom-Gill (CPMG) spectroscopic sequence. Each acquired echo consists of a small number of complex time-domain data points. The amplitudes of the spectral components in each echo are calculated by solving a set of linear equations in which previously estimated frequencies and linewidths serve as prior information. These priors are obtained from a short MRS experiment in which a large number of time-domain data points are acquired, and are subsequently estimated using linear prediction with singular value decomposition (LPSVD) processing. We show that this process can be used to accurately and rapidly measure the T2 values for the main singlet resonances in single-volume MRS measurements in the brain. The proposed method can be generalized to any set of MRS experiments comprising repeated measurements of amplitude changes, e.g. as a function of an experimental parameter, such as TE, inversion time or diffusion weighting.

Role of very high order and degree B0 shimming for spectroscopic imaging of the human brain at 7 tesla

With the advent of ultrahigh field systems (7 T), significant improvements in spectroscopic imaging (SI) studies of the human brain have been anticipated. These gains are dependent upon the achievable B0 homogeneity, both globally (σB0Global, over the entire regions of interest or slice) and locally (σB0Global, influencing the linewidth of individual SI voxels within the regions of interest). Typically the B0 homogeneity is adjusted using shim coils with spatial distributions modeled on spherical harmonics which can be characterized by a degree (radial dependence) and order (azimuthal symmetry). However, the role of very high order and degree shimming (e.g., 3rd and 4th degree) in MRSI studies has been controversial. Measurements of σB0Global and σB0Local were determined from B0 field maps of 64×64 resolution. In a 10 mm thick slice taken through the region of the subcortical nuclei, we find that in comparison to 1st-2nd degree shims, use of 1st-3rd and 1st-4th degree shims reduces σB0Global by 29% and 55%, respectively. Using a SI voxel size of ∼1cc with an estimate of σB0Local from 3×3×3 B0 map pixels in this subcortical region, the number of pixels with σB0Local of less than 5 Hz increased from 24 to 59% with 1st-3rd and 1st-4th over 1st-2nd degree shims, respectively.

Numerical Analysis of Human Sample Effect on RF Penetration and Liver MR Imaging at Ultrahigh Field

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) can provide clinically-valuable images for hepatic diseases and has become one of the most promising noninvasive methods in evaluating liver lesions. To facilitate the ultrahigh field human liver MRI, in this work, the RF penetration behavior in the conductive and high dielectric human body at the ultrahigh field of 7 Tesla (7T) is investigated and evaluated using the finite-difference time-domain numerical analysis. The study shows that in brain imaging at the ultrahigh field of 7T, the "dielectric resonance" effect dominates among other factors, resulting in improved B(1) penetration; while in liver imaging, due to its irregular geometry of the liver, the "dielectric resonance" effect is not readily to be established, leading to a reduced B(1) penetration or limited image coverage comparing to that in the brain. Therefore, it is necessary to build a large size coil to have deeper penetration to image human liver although the coil design may become more challenging due to the required high frequency. Based on this study, a bisected microstrip coil operating at 300 MHz range is designed and constructed. Three-dimensional in vivo liver images in axial, sagittal and coronal orientations are then acquired from healthy volunteers using this dedicated RF coil on a 7T whole body MR scanner.

Cross-sectional and longitudinal reproducibility of rhesus macaque brain metabolites: a proton MR spectroscopy study at 3 T

Non-human primates are often used as preclinical model systems for (mostly diffuse or multi-focal) neurological disorders and their experimental treatment. Due to cost considerations, such studies frequently utilize non-destructive imaging modalities, MRI and proton MR spectroscopy ((1) H MRS). Cost may explain why the inter- and intra-animal reproducibility of the (1) H MRS observed brain metabolites, are not reported. To this end, we performed test-retest three-dimensional brain (1) H MRS in five healthy rhesus macaques at 3 T. Spectra were acquired from 224 isotropic (0.5 cm)(3) = 125 μL voxels, over 28 cm(3) (∼ 35%) of the brain, then individually phased, frequency aligned and summed into a spectrum representative of the entire volume of interest. This dramatically increases the metabolites' signal-to-noise ratios, while maintaining the (narrow) voxel linewidth. The results show that the average N-acetylaspartate, creatine, choline, and myo-inositol concentrations in the macaque brain are: 7.7 ± 0.5, 7.0 ± 0.5, 1.2 ± 0.1 and 4.0 ± 0.6 mM/g wet weight (mean ± standard deviation). Their inter-animal coefficients of variation (CV) are 4%, 4%, 6%, and 15%; and the longitudinal (intra-animal) CVs are lower still: 4%, 5%, 5%, and 4%, much better than the 22%, 33%, 36%, and 45% intra-voxel CVs, demonstrating the advantage of the approach and its utility for preclinical studies of diffuse neurological diseases in rhesus macaques.

Retrospective correction for T1-weighting bias in T2 values obtained with various spectroscopic spin-echo acquisition schemes

Localized tissue transverse relaxation time (T(2)) is obtained by fitting a decaying exponential to the signals from several spin-echo experiments at different echo times (TE). Unfortunately, time constraints in magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) often mandate in vivo acquisition schemes at short repetition times (TR), that is, comparable with the longitudinal relaxation constant (T(1)). This leads to different T(1)-weighting of the signals at each TE. Unaccounted for, this varying weighting causes systematic underestimation of the T(2)'s, sometimes by as mush as 30%. In this article, we (i) analyze the phenomenon for common MRS spin-echo T(2) acquisition schemes; (ii) propose a general post hoc T(1)-bias correction for any (TR, TE) combination; (iii) show that approximate knowledge of T(1) is sufficient, since a 20% uncertainty in T(1) leads to under 3% bias in T(2); and consequently, (iv) efficient, precision-optimized short TR spin-echo T(2) measurement protocols can be designed and used without risk of accuracy loss. Tables of correction for single-refocusing (conventional) spin-echo and double refocusing, such as, PRESS acquisitions, are provided.