Projects
Congestive Heart Failure
Earth’s Field Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)
Earth’s Field Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)
Congestive Heart Failure (CHF) is a symptomless syndrom that develops exceptionally slowly over weeks and months before acutely leading to hospitalisations and rapid deterioration. To date detection of CHF is challenging hampering appropriate treatment and intervention. We are exploring solutions to accurately measure hemodynamic parameters as early markers of worsening and visualising multi-dimensional trend data effectively.
The video graph shows how CHF relates to symptoms of fatigue and breathlessness in relation to blood flow, vascular resistance, and filling pressures as a function of time.
Earth’s Field Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)
Earth’s Field Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)
Earth’s Field Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)
Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) is a non-invasive method to capture cross-sectional images without the need for ionising radiation (e.g. X-rays). However, high field MRI systems operate at magnetic field strengths above 1Tesla (T) facilitated through use of helium gas -a finite and expensive resource- to produce those fields. We are exploring MRI in the Earth’s magnetic field at 0.00005T through use of an existing system (Terranova, Magritek) and through developing and scaling our own equipment at the department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering at Trinity College Dublin.
Mobile ultrasound
Earth’s Field Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)
Mobile ultrasound
Portable ultrasound transducer (Butterfly Network) connected to iPhone to measure venous and arterial vessels as a surrogate for hemodynamic parameters such as blood flow, vascular resistance, and filling pressure.
Sodium MRI
Ultra high field MRI
Mobile ultrasound
Sodium-23 ions play a vital physiological role in tissue and promise to provide markers for tissue viability as well as for kidney function and other clinically useful parameters. However, signal for sodium MRI is ~20 000 times lower than for normally used hydrogen-1 based MRI. We explore circuits and methods to boost signal-to-noise ratio for sodium MRI.
The image shows Sodium Magnetic Resonance Images of a female volunteer at 3T (6mm x 6mm in-plane resolution, 72mm slice thickness, captured in 50minutes for five segments) [Wetterling, Friedrich; Corteville, Dominique; Kalayciyan, Raffi; Rennings, Andre; Konstandin, Simon; Nagel, Armin; Stark, Helmut; Schad, Lothar (2012-06-22). "Whole body sodium MRI at 3T using an asymmetric birdcage resonator and short echo time sequence: first images of a male volunteer". Physics in medicine and biology. 57 (14): 4555–4567. doi:10.1088/0031-9155/57/14/4555. PMID 22722731.]
Ultra high field MRI
Ultra high field MRI
Ultra high field MRI
Method development to facilitate high resolution Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) at ultra high field magnetic fields of >3T.
Join us
Ultra high field MRI
Ultra high field MRI
We are always looking for talented and motivated individuals to join our team. If you are passionate about medical circuits and systems, and want to make a difference, we encourage you to apply.