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A high-impedance detector-array glove for magnetic resonance imaging of the hand

Nature Biomedical Engineering volume 2, pages 570–577 (2018)Cite this article

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A Publisher Correction to this article was published on 29 August 2018

This article has been updated

Abstract

Densely packed resonant structures used for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), such as nuclear magnetic resonance phased array detectors, suffer from resonant inductive coupling, which restricts the coil design to fixed geometries, imposes performance limitations and narrows the scope of MRI experiments to motionless subjects. Here, we report the design of high-impedance detectors, and the fabrication and performance of a wearable detector array for MRI of the hand, that cloak themselves from electrodynamic interactions with neighbouring elements. We experimentally verified that the detectors do not suffer from the signal-to-noise degradation mechanisms typically observed with the use of traditional low-impedance elements. The detectors are adaptive and can accommodate movement, providing access to the imaging of soft-tissue biomechanics with unprecedented flexibility. The design of the wearable detector glove exemplifies the potential of high-impedance detectors in enabling a wide range of applications that are not well suited to traditional coil designs.

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Fig. 1: Design of NMR coil elements.
Fig. 2: Evaluation of signal coupling between three coil elements placed side by side.
Fig. 3: Evaluation of SNR degradation due to coupling between neighbouring coil elements as a function of coil overlap.
Fig. 4: Wearable glove coil design and images.
Fig. 5: Performance of the HIC glove coil compared with three state-of-the-art LIC phased arrays.

Change history

  • 29 August 2018

    Owing to a technical error, this Article was originally published with an incorrect published online date of ‘4 May 2018’; it should have been ‘7 May 2018’. This has now been corrected.

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Acknowledgements

This work was performed under the rubric of the Center for Advanced Imaging Innovation and Research (www.cai2r.net), a NIBIB Biomedical Technology Resource Center (NIH P41 EB017183). We thank R. Brown for critically reading the manuscript, M. Vester for many valuable discussions and Z. Yu for help during the experiments.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Bernard and Irene Schwartz Center for Biomedical Imaging, New York University School of Medicine, New York, NY, USA

    Bei Zhang, Daniel K. Sodickson & Martijn A. Cloos

  2. Center for Advanced Imaging Innovation and Research, New York University School of Medicine, New York, NY, USA

    Bei Zhang, Daniel K. Sodickson & Martijn A. Cloos

  3. Sackler Institute of Graduate Biomedical Sciences, New York University School of Medicine, New York, NY, USA

    Daniel K. Sodickson & Martijn A. Cloos

  4. Tech4Health, NYU Langone Health, New York, NY, USA

    Daniel K. Sodickson & Martijn A. Cloos

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  1. Bei Zhang
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  3. Martijn A. Cloos
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Contributions

B.Z. built the coils and interfaces. B.Z. and M.A.C. designed the experiments and collected the data. B.Z., D.K.S. and M.A.C. analysed the results and wrote the manuscript.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Bei Zhang or Martijn A. Cloos.

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NYU has filed provisional patent applications directed to this technology.

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Supplementary Information

Supplementary figures and video captions.

Reporting Summary

Supplementary Video 1

Magnetic resonance imaging of joint kinematics while playing piano.

Supplementary Video 2

Magnetic resonance imaging of joint kinematics when grabbing objects.

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Zhang, B., Sodickson, D.K. & Cloos, M.A. A high-impedance detector-array glove for magnetic resonance imaging of the hand. Nat Biomed Eng 2, 570–577 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41551-018-0233-y

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