title: Microcoil-based MRI: feasibility study and cell culture applications using a conventional animal system.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The aim of this study was to demonstrate the feasibility of MR microimaging on a conventional 9.4 T horizontal animal MRI system using commercial available microcoils in combination with only minor modifications to the system, thereby opening this field to a larger community.
  
  
  METHODS
  Commercially available RF microcoils designed for high-resolution NMR spectrometers were used in combination with a custom-made probehead. For this purpose, changes within the transmit chain and modifications to the adjustment routines and image acquisition sequences were made, all without requiring expensive hardware. To investigate the extent to which routine operation and high-resolution imaging is possible, the quality of phantom images was analysed. Surface and solenoidal microcoils were characterized with regard to their sensitive volume and signal-to-noise ratio. In addition, the feasibility of using planar microcoils to achieve high-resolution images of living glioma cells labelled with MnCl(2) was investigated.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The setup presented in this work allows routine acquisition of high-quality images with high SNR and isotropic resolutions up to 10 μm within an acceptable measurement time.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study demonstrates that MR microscopy can be applied at low cost on animal MR imaging systems, which are in widespread use. The successful imaging of living glioma cells indicates that the technique promises to be a useful tool in biomedical research.
authors.affiliation: Medical Physics, Department of Radiology, University Medical Center Freiburg, Breisacher Str. 60a, 79106, Freiburg, Germany. hans.weber@uniklinik-freiburg.de
authors.forename: Hans
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Weber
authors.forename: Nicoleta
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Baxan
authors.forename: Dominik
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Paul
authors.forename: Julian
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Maclaren
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Schmidig
authors.forename: Mohammad
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mohammadzadeh
authors.forename: Jürgen
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hennig
authors.forename: Dominik
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: von Elverfeldt
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D018929:Cell Culture Techniques; D004867:Equipment Design; D005240:Feasibility Studies; D006801:Humans; D007089:Image Enhancement / Q000295:instrumentation*; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000295:instrumentation*; D009682:Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D008853:Microscopy / Q000295:instrumentation*; D019047:Phantoms, Imaging