Virtual Meetings

The last week in July is universally recognized as MR Safety Week, inspired by the anniversary and 2001 tragic MRI-related death of Michael Colombini, age 6, resulting from a steel oxygen cylinder being brought into the MRI room during his exam. The initial goal of this week was to prevent such a tragedy from happening again and has expanded into a week-long event giving us a chance to refresh our safety education and highlight some of the issues we all face in the MR environment.

Quantitative susceptibility mapping (QSM) and susceptibility tensor imaging (STI) both aim to estimate magnetic susceptibility distribution of biological tissue from MRI phase measurements. While QSM assumes an isotropic bulk susceptibility in an MR imaging voxel, STI extends it to an anisotropic tensor. However, for complex tissues such as myelinated white matter fibers, MRI phase or the underlying Larmor frequency shifts may also be affected by the tissue magnetic microstructure at cellular or mesoscopic scales that are much smaller than the imaging voxel, raising questions on the accuracy of the QSM or STI model. A recent poll among our EMTP study group members resulted in susceptibility microstructure being the number one topic of interest for a virtual meeting.

While susceptibility microstructure has always been an important topic in QSM and STI, including previous generalized Lorentzian approaches and multicompartment modeling, some recent theoretical works have further pushed the field to approach a more realistic biophysical model of white matter and the corresponding microstructure contributions. In addition, advanced experimental studies, e.g., high angular resolution susceptibility tensor imaging with different sub-voxel modeling, may provide more evidence and insights into the microstructure effect.

The two presentations in this virtual meeting will review recent approaches to better model the microstructural effect on Larmor frequency shift, how to address it in susceptibility estimation, and recent experimental findings from advanced susceptibility tensor imaging.

The presentations will be followed by a discussion of the presented methods, findings, and future directions.

This webinar will deliver the latest information on cancer treatment using intraoperative MRI in the body region. Three experts in this field will give lectures on MRI-guided high-intensity-focused ultrasound and cryotherapy, particularly for lesions in the liver and prostate, from a technical development and clinical perspective. This webinar is jointly held by the Interventional MRI and Body MRI study groups. We believe this online event will be useful not only for members of both study groups but also for all members who are interested in the use of MRI in treatment. We have set the start time to 23:00 UTC so that people around the world can watch at a time slot that is as convenient as possible. We warmly welcome your participation.

This virtual meeting is offered to encourage MRI radiographers to bring their ideas to the table. An abstract is a summary of a scientific research or clinical case study designed to give the reader a complete, yet concise understanding of your work. Abstracts serve the function of sharing your original work. A scientific approach to writing should be followed, structuring your abstract using the following headings to help form a coherent report: problem statement, literature review, methods, results/findings, discussion and conclusions. The rationale must be clearly stated and discuss only the major points of your work, making sure to highlight the salient results drawn from your findings. Throughout this process you should collaborate with and seek feedback from colleagues. We offer 2 presentations & an opportunity to bring your idea forward for discussion with a panel of experts. They can help guide in transforming your idea into an abstract.

Quantitative MRI offers tremendous opportunities to study tissue structure and function in healthy and diseased kidneys. However, one critical aspect remains establishing methods to evaluate correlation between MRI metrics and histology, which is still the gold standard for tissue characterization. Addressing this would pave the way for non-invasive characterization of physio-pathological processes affecting the kidneys in multiple conditions.

This virtual meeting organized by the Renal MRI study group seeks to address the challenges and opportunities of bridging the gap between MR and histology for kidney characterization. The first presentation will provide an overview and the groundwork from other organ studies while the second and third presentations will focus on kidneys with an emphasis on chronic kidney disease and renal cancer.

It has long been appreciated that hypoxia reduces the efficacy of radiation therapy. However, a classic quote indicates “hypoxia adored, yet ignored” by the radiation therapy community. Recent innovations and developments in imaging suggest that it is becoming practical to identify tumor hypoxia, and we believe these presentations by experts in MRI and radiation therapy should stimulate further interest. Notably, oxygen-sensitive MRI and MR-LINACs are opening new frontiers.

James Drummond, MBBS, FRANZCR, has initiated clinical trials in both glioblastoma and head and neck cancer with the aim of enhancing radiation efficacy based on assessments of tumor hypoxia. In each case, he proposes to apply oxygen-sensitive MRI, specifically, measurements of R1 to assess tumor hypoxia and compare measurements with F-MISO PET. In GBM, the goal is to assess the potential for dose painting with a selective radiation boost to regions identified as hypoxic. In head and neck cancer, the goal is to recapitulate and expand a recent report from Memorial Sloan Kettering, which indicated effective treatment with substantial dose de-escalation in head neck tumors identified as well-oxygenated. Dr. Drummond will discuss the design of his trials and the logistics for implementing the MRI.

Atchar Sudhyadhom, Ph.D., is also interested in overcoming tumor hypoxia but with the potential use of metal nanoparticles (e.g., AGuIX) to enhance regional brain tumor response based on the stimulation of local Auger electrons. The presentation will focus on the ability to identify tumor hypoxia and the distribution of nanoparticles in the development of optimized protocols.

The goal of this webinar is to discuss environmental sustainability in MRI including an introduction to planetary health and the broad environmental impact of medical imaging, provide an overview of specific and practical actions that can be implemented to improve sustainability in MRI including energy-saving actions and waste reduction, and highlight the role of artificial intelligence and technical innovation to promote sustainability in MRI. The session will include a panel discussion with all speakers with an opportunity for audience engagement and participation.