Magnetic Resonance Imaging: technical development and translational applications

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) can produce images of the human body and brain non- invasively, but with outstanding resolution and contrast. The signal to noise ratio (SNR) of MRI increases proportional to the strength of the magnetic field, thus at high field, higher resolution is possible when compared to other field strengths, given a reasonable scan time This increased SNR can be parlayed into improvements for a number of imaging sequences. However, the SNR benefit at high field cannot yet be fully realized due to technical challenges such as inhomogeneity of the applied radio frequency (RF) field, and increased RF power deposition, measured in the specific absorption rate (SAR), at high fields. We will discuss the development of new pulse sequences which decrease the impact of RF field inhomogeneity while also reducing SAR deposition. We will also discuss the application of high field MRI to human neuroimaging and data analysis techniques which have revealed lesions indicating potential seizure onset zones in epilepsy and other biomarkers of epilepsy in patients with normal clinical MRI exams.