Toward employing the full potential of Magnetic Particle Imaging: exploring visualization techniques and clinical use cases for real-time 3D vascular imaging

摘要

Magnetic particle imaging (MPI) is a relatively young, radiation-free imaging modality that measures the interactionbetween superparamagnetic nanoparticles and magnetic fields. Compared to standard imaging modalities,a key feature of MPI is its ability to measure 3D volumes of relatively high spatial resolution in real-time, whilestill maintaining high sensitivity. Therefore, MPI is considered promising especially for vascular imaging and interventions.Yet, to fully take advantage of the unique MPI properties, real-time 4D imaging has to be combinedwith appropriate real-time 4D visualization and image analysis techniques. The current work aims at identifi-cation of respective clinical use cases and scenarios to illustrate the potential of MPI in the context of vascularimaging and interventions; the implementation and exploration of suitable visualization and image analysis techniques;and evaluation and comparison of the resulting image data to standard clinical imaging approaches. Thestudy is based on three clinical use cases and associated anatomical sites: mechanical thrombectomy (anatomicalstructure: middle cerebral artery, segments M1 and M2); endovascular coiling (internal carotid artery aneurysm);and chemoembolization (proper hepatic artery). Implemented visualization and image analysis options are basedon direct volume rendering and cover aspects like optimal view point and view angle selection and applicationof cut-away views. We illustrate that combining MPI imaging and 4D visualization helps to improve vascularimage interpretation.