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Signal Suppression (signal + suppression)
Selected AbstractsAssessing the influence of scanner background noise on auditory processing.HUMAN BRAIN MAPPING, Issue 8 2007Abstract We compared two experimental designs aimed at minimizing the influence of scanner background noise (SBN) on functional MRI (fMRI) of auditory processes with one conventional fMRI design. Ten subjects listened to a series of four one-syllable words and had to decide whether two of the words were identical. This was contrasted with a no-stimulus control condition. All three experimental designs had a duration of ,17 min: 1) a behavior interleaved gradients (BIG; Eden et al. [1999] J Magn Reson Imaging 41:13,20) design (repetition time, TR, = 6 s), where stimuli were presented during the SBN-free periods between clustered volume acquisitions (CVA); 2) a sparse temporal sampling technique (STsamp; e.g., Gaab et al., [2003] Neuroimage 19:1417,1426) acquiring only one set of slices following each of the stimulations with a 16-s TR and jittered delay times between stimulus offset and image acquisition; and 3) an event-related design with continuous scanning (ERcont) using the stimulation design of STsamp but with a 2-s TR. The results demonstrated increased signal within Heschl's gyrus for the STsamp and BIG-CVA design in comparison to ERcont as well as differences in the overall functional anatomy among the designs. The possibility to obtain a time course of activation as well as the full recovery of the stimulus- and SBN-induced hemodynamic response function signal and lack of signal suppression from SBN during the STsamp design makes this technique a powerful approach for conducting auditory experiments using fMRI. Practical strengths and limitations of the three auditory acquisition paradigms are discussed. Hum Brain Mapp, 2006. © 2006 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source] 3D flow-independent peripheral vessel wall imaging using T2 -prepared phase-sensitive inversion-recovery steady-state free precessionJOURNAL OF MAGNETIC RESONANCE IMAGING, Issue 2 2010Jingsi Xie BS Abstract Purpose: To develop a 3D flow-independent peripheral vessel wall imaging method using T2 -prepared phase-sensitive inversion-recovery (T2PSIR) steady-state free precession (SSFP). Materials and Methods: A 3D T2 -prepared and nonselective inversion-recovery SSFP sequence was designed to achieve flow-independent blood suppression for vessel wall imaging based on T1 and T2 properties of the vessel wall and blood. To maximize image contrast and reduce its dependence on the inversion time (TI), phase-sensitive reconstruction was used to restore the true signal difference between vessel wall and blood. The feasibility of this technique for peripheral artery wall imaging was tested in 13 healthy subjects. Image signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), wall/lumen contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR), and scan efficiency were compared between this technique and conventional 2D double inversion recovery , turbo spin echo (DIR-TSE) in eight subjects. Results: 3D T2PSIR SSFP provided more efficient data acquisition (32 slices and 64 mm in 4 minutes, 7.5 seconds per slice) than 2D DIR-TSE (2,3 minutes per slice). SNR of the vessel wall and CNR between vessel wall and lumen were significantly increased as compared to those of DIR-TSE (P < 0.001). Vessel wall and lumen areas of the two techniques are strongly correlated (intraclass correlation coefficients: 0.975 and 0.937, respectively; P < 0.001 for both). The lumen area of T2PSIR SSFP is slightly larger than that of DIR-TSE (P = 0.008). The difference in vessel wall area between the two techniques is not statistically significant. Conclusion: T2PSIR SSFP is a promising technique for peripheral vessel wall imaging. It provides excellent blood signal suppression and vessel wall/lumen contrast. It can cover a 3D volume efficiently and is flow- and TI-independent. J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 2010;32:399,408. © 2010 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source] Simultaneous myocardial and fat suppression in magnetic resonance myocardial delayed enhancement imaging,JOURNAL OF MAGNETIC RESONANCE IMAGING, Issue 4 2007Thomas K.F. Foo PhD Abstract Purpose To develop a method for fat suppression in myocardial delayed enhancement (MDE) studies that achieves effective signal intensity reduction in fat but does not perturb myocardial signal suppression. Materials and Methods A new approach to fat suppression that uses a spectrally-selective inversion-recovery (SPEC-IR) tip-up radio frequency (RF) pulse following the conventional nonselective IR RF pulse together with a second SPEC-IR RF pulse is proposed. The tip-up pulse restores the fat longitudinal magnetization after the nonselective IR pulse and allows the fat magnetization to recover more fully toward its equilibrium value, providing for better fat suppression by the second SPEC-IR RF pulse. This new approach was validated in phantom studies and in five patients. Results Effective fat suppression was achieved using the proposed technique with minimal impact on normal myocardial signal suppression. Mean fat suppression achieved using this approach was 67% ± 8%, as measured in the chest wall immediately opposite the heart. Conclusion The results indicate this modular-type approach optimizes fat suppression in myocardial delayed enhancement studies but does not perturb the basic IR pulse sequence or change basic acquisition parameters. J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 2007;26:927,933. © 2007 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source] Real-time MR temperature mapping of rabbit liver in vivo during thermal ablationMAGNETIC RESONANCE IN MEDICINE, Issue 2 2003Claudia Weidensteiner Abstract It has been shown that quantitative MRI thermometry using the proton resonance frequency (PRF) method can be used to noninvasively monitor the evolution of tissue temperature, and to guide minimally-invasive tumor ablation based on local hyperthermia. Although hepatic tumors are among the main targets for thermal ablation, PRF-based temperature MRI of the liver is difficult to perform because of motion artifacts, fat content, and low T. In this study the stability of real-time thermometry was tested on a clinical 1.5 T scanner for rabbit liver in vivo. The fast segmented EPI principle was used together with respiratory gating to limit respiratory motion artifacts. Lipid signal suppression was achieved with a binomial excitation pulse. Saturation slabs were applied to suppress artifacts due to flowing blood. The respiratory-gated MR thermometry in the rabbit liver in vivo showed a standard deviation (SD) of 1,3°C with a temporal resolution of 3 s per slice and 1.4 mm × 1.9 mm spatial resolution in plane (slice thickness = 5 mm). The method was used to guide thermal ablation experiments with a clinical infrared laser. The estimated size of the necrotic area, based on the thermal dose calculated from MR temperature maps, corresponded well with the actual lesion size determined by histology and conventional MR images obtained 5 days posttreatment. These results show that quantitative MR temperature mapping can be obtained in the liver in vivo, and can be used for real-time control of thermal ablation and for lesion size prediction. Magn Reson Med 50:322,330, 2003. © 2003 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source] Analysis of electromagnetic band-gap waveguide structures using body-of-revolution finite-difference time-domain methodMICROWAVE AND OPTICAL TECHNOLOGY LETTERS, Issue 9 2007Ming-Sze Tong Abstract Study of electromagnetic band-gap (EBG) structures has become a hot topic in computational electromagnetics. In this article, some EBG structures integrated inside a circular waveguide are studied. They are formed by a series of air-gaps within a circular dielectric-filled waveguide. A body-of-revolution finite-difference time-domain (BOR-FDTD) method is adopted for analysis of such waveguide structures, due to their axial symmetric properties. The opening ends of the waveguide are treated as a matched load using an unsplit perfectly matched layer technique. Excitations on a waveguide in BOR-FDTD are demonstrated. Numerical results of various air-gap lengths with respect to the period of separation are given, showing an interesting tendency of EBG behavior. A chirping-and-tapering technique is applied on the EBG pattern to improve the overall performance. The proposed EBG structures may be applied into antenna structures or other system for unwanted signal suppression. Results show that the BOR-FDTD offers a good alternative in analyzing axial symmetric configurations, as it offers enormous savings in computational time and memory comparing with a general 3D-FDTD algorithm. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 49: 2201,2206, 2007; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/mop.22668 [source] The effect of sodium dodecyl sulfate and anion-exchange silica gel on matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometric analysis of proteinsRAPID COMMUNICATIONS IN MASS SPECTROMETRY, Issue 11 2009Miwako Asanuma Sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS), an anionic surfactant, is widely used in peptide and protein sample preparation. When the sample is analyzed by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry (MALDI-MS), this surfactant can often cause signal suppression. We have previously reported an on-probe sample preparation method using a suspension of anion-exchange silica gel and sinapinic acid (i.e., gel-SA suspension) as a matrix, thereby greatly improving the MALDI signal detection of the protein solutions containing SDS. In this study, we found that a certain amount of SDS enhanced the MALDI signal intensity for protein samples. This effect was also observed when using sodium decyl sulfate and sodium tetradecyl sulfate instead of SDS. Furthermore, this on-probe sample preparation method using both SDS and the gel-SA suspension improved the detection limit of protein samples in the MALDI-MS analysis by about ten-fold as compared to that of protein samples without SDS and the gel-SA suspension. This method can be applied not only to the MALDI-MS analysis of samples containing SDS, but also to the examination of proteins at femtomole levels or insoluble proteins such as membrane proteins. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Development of a liquid chromatography/electrospray selected reaction monitoring method for the determination of organoarsenic species in marine and freshwater samplesRAPID COMMUNICATIONS IN MASS SPECTROMETRY, Issue 19 2006Richard Schaeffer Cation- and anion-exchange high-performance liquid chromatography/electrospray selected reaction monitoring (HPLC/ES-SRM) methods were developed for the determination of 15 organoarsenic compounds in marine and freshwater samples. The results demonstrate that the developed HPLC/ES-SRM methods are powerful approaches for the identification of organoarsenic species in crude sample extracts. The detection limits, linearity as well as reproducibility for most of the species are comparable or even better than those measured by the HPLC/inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICPMS) technique. The qualitative analysis of the extracts shows that the developed methods allow for the identification of arsenicals which were not detectable by ICPMS. It was also demonstrated that the signal suppression caused by matrix effects means a significant limitation in the quantification of arsenicals by ES-SRM detection. This drawback is manifested especially in the case of the slightly retained species. The three sample-cleanup chromatographic methods including off-line size-exclusion, on-line reversed-phase and on-line oppositely charged ion-exchange approaches proved to be ineffective for separation of the signal-suppressive matrix from the analytes. The standard addition calibration seems to be a suitable solution for such problems. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Development and validation of a liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometric method for the determination of 39 mycotoxins in wheat and maizeRAPID COMMUNICATIONS IN MASS SPECTROMETRY, Issue 18 2006Michael Sulyok This paper describes the first validated method for the determination of 39 mycotoxins in wheat and maize using a single extraction step followed by liquid chromatography with electrospray ionization triple quadrupole mass spectrometry (LC/ESI-MS/MS) without the need for any clean-up. The 39 analytes included A- and B-trichothecenes (including deoxynivalenol-3-glucoside), zearalenone and related derivatives, fumonisins, enniatins, ergot alkaloids, ochratoxins, aflatoxins and moniliformin. The large number and the chemical diversity of the analytes required the application of the positive as well as the negative ion ESI mode in two consecutive chromatographic runs of 21,min each. The solvent mixture acetonitrile/water/acetic acid 79,+,20,+,1 (v/v/v) has been determined as the best compromise for the extraction of the analytes from wheat and maize. Raw extracts were diluted 1,+,1 and were injected without any clean-up. Ion-suppression effects due to co-eluting matrix components were negligible in the case of wheat, whereas significant signal suppression for 12 analytes was observed in maize, causing purely proportional systematic errors. Method performance characteristics were determined after spiking blank samples on multiple levels in triplicate. Coefficients of variation of the overall process of <5.1% and <3.0% were obtained for wheat and maize, respectively, from linear calibration data. Limits of detection ranged from 0.03 to 220,µg/kg. Apparent recoveries (including both the recoveries of the extraction step and matrix effects) were within the range of 100,±,10% for approximately half of the analytes. In extreme cases the apparent recoveries dropped to about 20%, but this could be compensated for to a large extent by the application of matrix-matched standards to correct for matrix-induced signal suppression, as only a few analytes such as nivalenol and the fumonisins exhibited incomplete extraction. For deoxynivalenol and zearalenone, the trueness of the method was confirmed through the analysis of certified reference materials. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] | ||||||||||