Moving table magnetic particle imaging: a stepwise approach preserving high spatio-temporal resolution

Area of Science:

• Medical Imaging
• Biophysics
• Nanotechnology

Background:

• Magnetic particle imaging (MPI) offers high sensitivity and temporal resolution for visualizing magnetic nanoparticles.
• Current MPI field of view (FoV) is limited in clinical settings due to magnetic field strength constraints.
• Expanding the FoV is crucial for broader clinical applications of MPI.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the use of an external moving table to expand the field of view in MPI.
• To develop a reconstruction method for data acquired during stepwise object movement.

Main Methods:

• An object was moved stepwise through the static field of view of the MPI scanner.
• Data acquisition was performed continuously during object movement.
• A joint reconstruction algorithm was developed to reorder and combine data based on object shifts and physiological phases (e.g., heartbeats).

Main Results:

• The study successfully demonstrated the feasibility of expanding the MPI field of view using a moving table approach.
• Joint reconstruction of data from stepwise object shifts and physiological phases was achieved.
• Validation was performed using both a 3-D phantom and dynamic 3-D in vivo data.

Conclusions:

• Moving table experiments combined with advanced reconstruction techniques can effectively overcome the field of view limitations in MPI.
• This approach holds promise for enhancing the diagnostic capabilities of MPI in clinical settings.
• Further development could enable whole-body imaging with MPI.