Direct magnetic resonance imaging of histological tissue samples at 3.0T.
Direct imaging of a histological slice is challenging. The vast difference in dimension between planar size and the thickness of histology slices would require an RF coil to produce a uniform RF magnetic (B1) field in a 2D plane with minimal thickness. In this work a novel RF coil designed specifically for imaging a histology slice was developed and tested. The experimental data demonstrate that the coil is highly sensitive and capable of producing a uniform B1 field distribution in a planar region of histological slides, allowing for the acquisition of high-resolution T2 images and T2 maps from a 60-microm-thick histological sample. The image intensity and T2 distributions were directly compared with histological staining of the relative iron concentration of the same slice. This work demonstrates the feasibility of using a microimaging histological coil to image thin slices of pathologically diseased tissue to obtain a precise one-to-one comparison between stained tissue and MR images.
Meadowcroft
Mark D
MD
Center for NMR Research, Department of Radiology, Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine, Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, Hershey, Pennsylvania 17033, USA.
Zhang
Shutong
S
Liu
Wanzhan
W
Park
Bu Sik
BS
Connor
James R
JR
Collins
Christopher M
CM
Smith
Michael B
MB
Yang
Qing X
QX
D016477:Artifacts; D001927:Brain Diseases / Q000473:pathology*; D004867:Equipment Design; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D016014:Linear Models; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D019047:Phantoms, Imaging; D013194:Staining and Labeling