#	Pagina
attuale pagina	/open-h2020/projects/207468/results.html

Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - M-CUBE (MetaMaterials antenna for ultra-high field MRI)

Teaser

Summary

M-Cube aims at changing the paradigm of High-Field MRI and Ultra High-Field antennas to offer a much better insight on the human body and enable earlier detection of diseases. Our main objective is to go beyond the limits of MRI clinical imaging and radically improve spatial and temporal resolutions. The clinical use of High-field MRI scanners is drastically limited due to the lack of homogeneity and to the Specific Absorption Rate (SAR) of the Radio Frequency (RF) fields associated with the magnetic resonance. The major way to tackle and solve these problems consists in increasing the number of active RF antennas, leading to complex and expensive solutions. M-Cube solution relies on innovative systems based upon passive metamaterial structures to avoid multiple active elements. These systems are expected to make High-Field MRI fully diagnostically relevant for physicians.
To achieve these expectations, M-Cube consortium is developing a disruptive metamaterial antenna technology. This will able us to tackle both the lack of homogeneity and SAR barriers. Metamaterials are composite structured manmade materials designed to produce effective properties unavailable in nature (e.g. negative optical index). They allow us to tailor electromagnetic waves at will. Thus, the scientifically ambitious idea is to develop antennas based on this unique ability for whole body coil. This technological breakthrough will be validated by preclinical and clinical tests with healthy volunteers. M- Cube gathers an interdisciplinary consortium composed of academic leaders in the field, eight universities, and two promising SMEs. Physicists, medical doctors and industrial actors are working closely all along the implementation of the project to guarantee the success this novel approach, a â€œpatient-centeredâ€ solution that will pave the way for a more accurate diagnosis in the context of personalized medicine and will enable to detect a disease much earlier that is currently possible.

Work performed

A safety mode have been agreed between the partners.
The \'ethics requirements\' set out in this work package have been ensured, in line with national laws and the European commission requirements.
These authorisations enable the M-CUBE consotium to start in vivo imaging on different part of the bodies.
Main results, 5 prototypes of antennae have been designed and produced for :
- Head Imaging (1 prototype)
- Neck, Spinal cord and Heart imaging (1 prototype)
- Prostate imaging (1 prototype)
- Extremities imaging (2 prototypes)

2 patents have been accepted.
11 scientific publications have been published in top level journals from the different fields covered by the project.
17 proceedings have been prepared and/or presented in world-class conferences.
15 invited talks have been performed by the consortium.
11 oral talks have been presented in international conferences

Management : 6 consortium meetings have been organised, 7 steering committee. An Intellectual Property and an ethics committee have been created.

Final results

M-CUBE will have high scientific, economic and societal impacts. The antennas based on metamaterials, as a proof of concept, will become a promising alternative to parallel transmission. Nowadays, only 60 ultra-high field MRI systems exist in the word. It is very unfortunate considering that this type of device is one of the only ways to precociously diagnose very serious neurodegenerative pathologies such as Alzheimer\'s and Parkinsonâ€™s disease. It is also a chance to strongly improve specificity for very prominent cancers like prostate cancer (second most common cancer in men worldwide), for which actual tool at lower fields failed or need extensive multi-parametric solutions to discriminate malign and benign forms. Thanks to our solution, we hope that doctors will get a viable Whole Body (WB) imaging solution which will offer the opportunity to scan any organs at UHF with all the benefit expected, including â€œhead to toeâ€ scan, essential tool for non-invasive cancer detection, staging and follow up (in contrast to more classic ionizing PET solution). These novel and unique information relevant to various diseases will strongly improve patient care. On the short run, using ultra high field MRI involves increased costs for manufacturing the RF antennas compared to low field MRI. For instance, a parallel transmission system costs around 1 million euros. This price tag includes the manufacturing cost of antennas complicated associated electronics, and SAR monitoring systems. On the long run, the use of metamaterials will significantly reduce these costs. Indeed, using passive system allows to reduce the number of antennas, power consumption and to simplify electronics. These improvements will lead to a price drop of at least 50 percent. In addition, these advances can benefit to all MRIs systems (including low field). M-Cube relies on the use of 7T MRI scanners manufactured by the two main European MRI manufacturers, namely Siemens and Philips. The improvement resulting from M-Cube will reinforce the European industrial leadership in MRI and associated RF systems. For the last decade, the MRI market has been steadily increasing and, according to market analysts, should continue to grow at a very good pace in the next decade. For instance, Siemens stated that MRI scanner sells have increased by 50,4% from 2009 to 2013 (from 2439 to 3668 millions of dollars) and MRI scanners sold units have also strongly increased by 44,6% on the same period (from 3173 to 4587 units). In 2013 the MRI market represented 3,7 billions of dollars. The antennas incorporated in MRI machines represented 30% of this market. M-Cube project targets MRI antennas market and intend to reinforce Europe in a very competitive position at the global level. The participation of two SMEs provides the consortium a market-oriented vision for the expected innovations, along with a middle and long-term economic strategy. In order to enhance the relevance of this proposal, an advisory group is associated to this consortium. This advisory group is composed by: Paul Lecoq (senior physicist at CERN in the Experimental Physics division), Richard Craster (professor of applied mathematics, and Head of the department of mathematics at Imperial College) and Stephane Lehericy (Doctor, Professor neuroradiology, Director CENIR).