Diagnostic Hardware/Software/Medical Devices

Prof. Oelze from the University of Illinois has developed a novel technique of processing ultrasound images which will improve the spatial resolution by a factor of 6.9 (at least) over the diffraction limited approaches. It will also provide significant noise reduction.

Nonlinear Interferometric Vibrational Imaging (NIVI) NIVI offers unmatched capabilities in biomedical imaging by performing non-invasive three-dimensional molecular imaging of living specimens and tissue. This imaging platform interferometrically detects nonlinear optical signals based on the vibrational states of atomic bonds within target molecules and may be used for diagnostics and for delivery of focused ablative treatment. 

Developed as part of a portfolio of optical contrast agents and molecular detection technologies that enhance the ability of optical coherence tomography (OCT) to non-invasively map molecules in living specimens and diagnose disease where it starts. OCT utilizes low-coherence interferometry to measure the intensity of reflected or backscattered light to form images with micrometer resolution, is readily integrated with existing optical instrumentation and has application across a wide range of biological, medical, surgical, and non-biological specialties.

Benefits:

• Images a range of molecular species simultaneously with a single instrument
• Requires no exogenous labels to detect specific molecules
• Permits precise density determination without background signals
• Allows 3-D discrimination of molecular density and enhancement

Provides 2D and 3D imaging of biological tissues, showing both molecular information and structural information. These measurements could provide clinical diagnostic value without requiring a biopsy. These innovations offer better sensitivity, better false signal rejection, and more flexibility than CARS microscopes, and can potentially be much cheaper and easier to operate. 

A set of CARS (Coherent Anti-stokes Raman Spectroscopy) related inventions that efficiently enable in vivo three-dimensional imaging of biological tissues without added stains or markers. The features examined are actually the density of molecules in tissue with particular molecular ro-vibrational features. This is a major improvement over NIVI (Non-linear Interferometric Vibrational Imaging).

Determination of both structural and chemical attributes of biological tissues either as biopsy or in vivo.

Laboratory set-ups exist, many animal and human tissues have been imaged. Ready for product development engineering to: reduce cost, provide customer-centric packaging, documentation, regulatory compliance, etc. 

This invention is a new method for real time cardiac magnetic resonance (MR) imaging that produces high-spatial and temporal resolution motion movies of the beating heart non-invasively using a MRI scanner, even in the presence of breathing.

MRI's use in the cardiovascular system has been limited. The basic challenge in cardiac MRI is posed by the dynamic motion of the imaged object during the MR data acquisition; unless special methods are adopted this produces unwanted artifacts in the reconstructed MR images in the presence of physiological motion. Also, instead of simply capturing "snap-shot" images one could reconstruct a dynamic movie of the moving object, providing further information of possible diagnostic value.

Methods designed to deal with the motion of objects caused by the beating of the heart and respiration can be classified into three categories: 1) general fast imaging approaches 2) methods dealing with respiration-induces motion 3) methods dealing with cardiac-induced motion This technology improves on the existing methods in several ways.

• Does not require breath holding, and the drawbacks associated with it.
• Acquires data throughout the respiratory cycle and can reconstruct real-time images of a cardiac slice.
• Uses estimates of the respiration-induced motion to select the ideal set of MR data to be acquired and thus reduces the complexity of the reconstruction algorithm while improving the reconstruction quality.
• Uses a more accurate motion model for respiratory motion to produce still and moving images with fewer artifacts and wider applicability.
• Compensates for affine respiration-induce motion exactly. It can also optimize the MR acquisition and reconstruction process and can produce a motion-movie of the dynamically beating heart.
• Does not assume cardiac cyclicity, acquires data throughout the heartbeat and can produce real-time cardiac motion movies.  
• Explicitly models the effects of both cardiac and respiration-induced motion effects and hence overcome the drawbacks of these models.

Benefits

• Easy to integrate - This system can be combined with pre-existing static and dynamic MR imaging methods to make them insensitive to affine respiratory motion and tolerant of more general (non-affine) respiratory motion.
• Improved image quality - The quality of dynamic cardiac reconstructions obtainable by MR scanners is improved in current applications by reducing image artifacts. Also improves the MR imaging (MRI) of other organs (such as the liver) whose images are otherwise degraded by respiratory motion Extends clinical applications of cardiac MRI - Improves the spatial and temporal resolution and enables real time 3-D imaging.
• Helps more people - Increases the reach of cardiac MR to a larger set of patients by eliminating constraints imposed by breath-holding requirements.

A method for imaging a brain of a subject includes providing a cognitive task for the subject or measuring resting state blood flow without a cognitive task, applying a saturation pulse sequence to saturate a slice within an imaging volume in the subject, and applying an imaging pulse sequence to acquire data from the imaging volume.

A saturated image is acquired shortly after termination of the saturation pulse sequence and a non-saturation image is acquired after spins flowing through the saturated slice have recovered. The saturation image and the non-saturation image are subtracted to generate a blood velocity or perfusion enhanced difference image indicating portions of the brain active during the cognitive task.

When measuring resting state blood flow without a cognitive task, the method includes acquiring a calibration scan and performing a quantitative evaluation of the blood velocity perpendicular to the saturated slice.