A temperature-controlled cooling system for accurate quantitative post-mortem MRI

Area of Science:

• Medical Imaging
• Biophysics
• Materials Science

Background:

• Post-mortem MRI is challenged by tissue heating, leading to inaccurate quantitative measurements.
• Unfixed tissue requires precise temperature control for reliable imaging due to its sensitivity to thermal variations.
• Existing MRI setups lack adequate temperature management for extended post-mortem scans.

Purpose of the Study:

• To engineer a temperature-controlled cooling system for quantitative post-mortem MRI.
• To enable accurate scanning of unfixed biological tissues.
• To minimize temperature drift during Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scans.

Main Methods:

• Developed and integrated a water cooling system with a 7 Tesla (7T) MRI scanner.
• Optimized the system for operational convenience and rapid deployment for unfixed samples.
• Evaluated performance using a 7-hour diffusion MRI protocol on porcine tissue, interspersing quantitative T1, T2, and ADC mapping to assess temperature dependence.

Main Results:

• The cooling system maintained stable tissue T1, T2, and ADC values throughout the diffusion MRI scan.
• Conventional scanning without temperature control resulted in substantial variations in tissue parameters.
• Accurate biophysical model parameter estimation was achieved with the cooling system, unlike conventional setups which showed biased results.

Conclusions:

• The developed temperature-controlled cooling system effectively addresses heating issues in post-mortem imaging.
• This system enhances the accuracy and reliability of quantitative post-mortem MRI.
• It enables prolonged scanning of unfixed tissues, expanding the possibilities for post-mortem research.