Ultra-High Field Neuro MRI

Karin Markenroth Bloch leads the Swedish National 7T facility at Lund University. She obtained a PhD in Nuclear Physics from Chalmers University of Technology, after which she started her career in MRI at DRCMR, Copenhagen, at one of the first Nordic 3T scanners in clinical use. These early experiences stimulated her interest in leveraging the potential of high field strength in clinical applications as much as research and neuroscience. Following a career in Philips as a clinical scientist, Dr. Markenroth Bloch returned to academia to start up and, since 2016, head the Swedish National 7T facility. In this role, her ambition is to make 7T MR broadly accessible to users in a range of applications. Her personal research interests are in methods for velocity-encoded phase-contrast MRI, and their use in studying flow of blood and CSF in the brain. Dr. Markenroth Bloch is engaged in several international and local MRI communities, and in public outreach and popular science initiatives. She has been involved in the ISMRM in a range of capacities, including as a member of the Board of Trustees, the ISMRM High Field Study Group committee and the ISMRM and ESMRMB program committees. Maxime Guye, M.D., Ph.D., is a Neurologist, Professor of Biophysics at the School of Medicine, Aix-Marseille University (AMU), and in the Medical Imaging Department of the Marseille University Hospital. He is also senior consultant in the Department of Clinical Neuroscience. He is deputy director and head of the clinical site of the Centre for Magnetic Resonance in Biology and Medicine (CRMBM), jointly operated by AMU, the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) and the University Hospital System. After a fellowship in the UCL Epilepsy Imaging Group (London, UK), he started a research activity on epilepsy imaging using multimodal MRI and electrophysiology in Marseille in 2002. Since 2014 he is leading the 7T MRI facility in Marseille and is particularly involved in clinical research and applications of 7T MRI in neurological diseases. He is actively involved in the MRI community at national and international level. He was elected to the ISMRM High Field Study Group committee and was a member of the ISMRM program committee. He has been elected President of the French Society for Magnetic Resonance in Biology & Medicine and a member of the scientific committee of the French Society of Radiology. Benedikt Poser is Professor of MR Methods for Neuroscience at Maastricht University. He has a background in Physics and Business Management, and obtained a PhD in MR Physics at Radboud University Nijmegen in 2009. He gained early experience with Ultra-High Field MRI and its adaption for functional imaging at the Erwin L Hahn Institute in Essen, on one of the first human 7T systems in Europe. Following a fellowship at the University of Hawaii, he returned to Europe in 2013 for a faculty appointment at Maastricht University, where he leads the MR Methods group, and since 2020 holds a Chair within the Cognitive Neuroscience department. The central focus of his work has been the development of acquisition strategies for functional and structural MRI at UHF, and bringing parallel-transmit technologies to neuroscientific application at 7T and 9.4T. Benedikt Poser is an active member of the MRI community, with engagement in several roles in the European and International societies. Amongst other functions, he served on the ISMRM and ESMRMB program committees, and as President of the ESMRMB. Together with the co-editors of this book he also enjoyed a fruitful and rewarding time on the ISMRM High Field Study Group committee.

Part 1: Benefits of Ultra-High Field 1. The way back and ahead: MR physics at Ultra-High Field 2. Translating UHF advances to lower field strength

Part 2: Acquisition at Ultra-High Field: practical considerations 3. Practical solutions to practical constraints: Making things work at ultra-high field 4. Practical considerations on ultra-high field safety 5. Bioeffects, patience experience and occupational safety

Part 3: Ultra-High Field Challenges and Technical Solutions 6. B0 inhomogeneity: Causes and coping strategies 7. B1 inhomogeneity: Physics background, RF pulse design and parallel transmission 8. RF coils for ultra-high field neuroimaging 9. Parallel imaging and reconstruction techniques 10. Motion correction

Part 4: Ultra-high field Structural Imaging: Techniques for neuroanatomy 11. High-resolution T1-weighted and T2-weighted anatomical imaging 12. Brain segmentation at ultra-high field: challenges, opportunities and unmet needs 13. Phase imaging: Susceptibility-weighted imaging and Quantitative Susceptibility Mapping 14. Quantitative MRI and multi-parametric mapping

Part 5: Ultra-high field Structural Imaging: Zooming in on the brain 15. Cerebellar imaging 16. Ultra-high field imaging of the medial temporal lobe 17. Imaging of the deep gray matter 18. Brain stem imaging 19. Spinal Cord Imaging

Part 6: Diffusion and Perfusion imaging at Ultra-High Field 20. Diffusion weighted magnetic resonance at ultra-high field 21. Ultra-high Field Brain Perfusion MRI

Part 7: Ultra-High Field Functional Imaging 22. BOLD fMRI: physiology and acquisition strategies 23. Sequences and contrasts for non-BOLD fMRI 24. Laminar and columnar imaging at UHF: considerations for mesoscopic scale imaging with fMRI 25. The power of gray-matter optimized fMRI at UHF for cognitive neuroscience

Part 8: Techniques for Ultra-High Field Metabolic Imaging and Spectroscopy 26. MR Spectroscopy and spectroscopic imaging 27. Imaging with X-nuclei 28. Chemical Exchange Saturation Transfer MRI in the human brain at ultra-high fields

Part 9: Benefits of Ultra-High Field in Clinical Applications 29. Epilepsy 30. Multiple sclerosis 31. Neurovascular diseases 32. Neurodegenerative diseases 33. Parkinson’s disease and Parkinson-plus syndromes 34. Alzheimer's disease and ageing 35. Oncological applications 36. Psychiatric applications at UHF

Part 10: New Horizons 37. Human MR at extremely high field strengths