Design and evaluation of an MRI-compatible linear motion stage
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Published on: May 3, 2015
Mohammad Ali Tavallaei1, Patricia M Johnson2, Junmin Liu3
1Imaging Research Laboratories, Robarts Research Institute, The University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario N6A 5B7, Canada and Biomedical Engineering Graduate Program, The University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario N6A 5B9, Canada.
Purpose:
To develop and evaluate a tool for accurate, reproducible, and programmable motion control of imaging phantoms for use in motion sensitive magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) appli cations.
Methods:
In this paper, the authors introduce a compact linear motion stage that is made of nonmagnetic material and is actuated with an ultrasonic motor. The stage can be positioned at arbitrary positions and orientations inside the scanner bore to move, push, or pull arbitrary phantoms. Using optical trackers, measuring microscopes, and navigators, the accuracy of the stage in motion control was evaluated. Also, the effect of the stage on image signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), artifacts, and B0 field homogeneity was evaluated.
Results:
The error of the stage in reaching fixed positions was 0.025 ± 0.021 mm. In execution of dynamic motion profiles, the worst-case normalized root mean squared error was below 7% (for frequencies below 0.33 Hz). Experiments demonstrated that the stage did not introduce artifacts nor did it degrade the image SNR. The effect of the stage on the B0 field was less than 2 ppm.
Conclusions:
The results of the experiments indicate that the proposed system is MRI-compatible and can create reliable and reproducible motion that may be used for validation and assessment of motion related MRI applications.
