ISMRM SCIENTIFIC WORKSHOP ~ 20-23 FEBRUARY 2011
 

ULTRA-HIGH FIELD SYSTEMS & APPLICATIONS: 
7t & BEYOND:  PROGRESS, PITFALLS & POTENTIAL
LAKE LOUISE, ALBERTA, CANADA
 

OVERVIEW

This workshop will offer opportunities for in-depth presentations and discussions of technical and research achievements and issues of ultra high field (UHF) in the spectacular setting of Lake Louise in the winter.

Currently, over 30 human 7T scanners are in operation – with many more, even higher field, being planned. This growth reflects a growing interest in the potential that UHF promises.  UHF imaging is a rapidly evolving area of MRI development related to engineering, image acquisition and quality, spectroscopy, novel contrast mechanisms, high resolution imaging, safety, neuroscience applications, and potential clinical applications.

While our most recent workshops have focused on the emerging technical issues related to imaging at UHF, we propose this year to emphasize the applications – or what UHF  imaging can and can’t do, providing a sense of the state of the art of the field.  This focus will likely cause the audience to consist more of those individuals who have less experience at UHF but a substantial interest in being educated on its progress, associated pitfalls, and potential.

 

AUDIENCE DESCRIPTION

This workshop is designed for MR scientists, RF engineers developing MRI hardware, scanning methods, and processing methods, radiologists with interest in the clinical potential of ultra-high field MRI, and neuroanatomists and imaging neuroscientists with interest in high-sensitivity MR techniques. 

It will be presented at a level which will have an impact on two types of people:

a.         those with at least a year of experience in advanced application research at 3T but no experience at 7T, and

b.         those who have been working at 7T for at least a year.

The focus of the sessions will be to build an appreciation of the rapidly evolving UHF limits and advantages. In addition, clinicians who use MRI will benefit as we will also discuss specifics of potential clinical applications.

 

EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVES

Upon completion of this workshop, participants should be able to:

List the current and potential uses and practical and methodological issues involved with the use of 7T or higher;

Describe what is required, and the specific applications for UHF based: neuro-anatomic assessment, body assessment, and angiography;

Evaluate the relative advantages and limitations of UHF for spectroscopy;

Describe in detail the necessary hardware and imaging methodology for performing fMRI using BOLD and ASL at UHF.  In addition, the participants will be able to describe the unique advantages and current challenges of performing functional MRI and resting state connectivity assessment at UHF;

Explain the fundamental issues involved with performing DTI at UHF, and describe the essence of the debate as to whether DTI is feasible or not – and if so, how – at UHF;

Illustrate the principles behind the spatial and temporal limits at UHF;

Explain the current potential for clinical applications, and also list the necessary precautions regarding safety;   list the needed components of an IRB proposals to allow human scanning at UHF;

Describe what is optimal as well as what’s necessary from the hardware, excitation, and image reconstruction perspective at UHF.