A Novel Single-Sided Imaging Device for MR Elastography

Daniel V. Litwiller¹, Eric A. Borisch¹, Roger C. Grimm¹, Joel P. Felmlee¹, Richard L. Ehman¹

Recent years have seen the development of small, single-sided NMR systems suitable for a variety of applications in biomedicine. These novel imaging systems are typified by their small size, single-sided nature and nonuniform polarizing fields. Another emerging field of research is non-invasive imaging of material properties of tissues and biomaterials with the clinical application of techniques like MR elastography. The goal of this work was to develop a low cost single-sided NMR device, capable of MR elastography, which would be potentially useful for applications such as evaluation of normal and pathological skin, benchtop pathology, and evaluating engineered tissue constructs.