Novel MRI Sequence- MR Fingerprinting

Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) has become one of most important medical imaging tools over the past 30 years because it is non-invasive, requires no ionizing radiation, and provides exquisite images of soft tissues and anatomic structures with many tissue/disease specific contrasts. While MRI has served the community well for many years, it is increasingly clear that it also has significant limitations.

One of the principle limitations is the lack of quantitative information for tissue/structure characterization. The current paradigm of MRI is to use a set of scanner settings to generate an image "weighted" by a specific MR contrast mechanism (physical parameter), where it is hoped that variations in the parameter will be accentuated. However, without quantitative knowledge of the parameters, the final image contrast may depend on many factors, which complicates image interpretation and diagnostic performance. Quantitative measurement can provide a great deal of information about tissue properties and pathological conditions, since these parameters ultimately determine the contrast that is observed in conventional images.

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Key information

Conditions

Disease Pathologic Processes Pathological Conditions, Signs and Symptoms

Age range

18 year–99 year

Sex eligibility

All sexes

Study type

Interventional

Phase

Not applicable

Primary location

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Chapel Hill, North Carolina, 27599, United States

About this study

The purpose of this study is to evaluate novel quantitative MRI techniques in clinical studies to determine whether they can provide better, faster and more useful information for clinical diagnosis. In this study, the investigators propose to apply MR Fingerprinting and evaluate its performance for different diseases. These include, but are not limited to, diseases in the liver, kidney, cardiac, pancreas etc. The investigators hypothesize that the quantitative MR Fingerprinting imaging technique will lead to improved tissue characterization and diagnosis.

Who can participate

Healthy volunteers accepted: Yes

Only the study team can determine whether someone qualifies for participation.

Inclusion criteria

The study will include English-speaking patients that are already scheduled to undergo a clinical MRI for diagnostic purposes.

Exclusion criteria

Pregnant women will be excluded.
Women will be excluded from the healthy volunteers, due to a lack of funding for pregnancy testing. Funding for this will be considered for the future.

Treatment and study plan

MR Fingerprinting

Device

The MR fingerprinting technique requires less than 15 minutes and will be added following the standard MRI sequence.

Primary outcomes

Percent of Patients With Visible Region of Interest (Imaging Visibility)

Time frame: Immediately following MRI completion, within approximately 5 minutes

MR fingerprinting sequences will be examined to determine their utility for visualizing pathology.

Sponsors and collaborators

Lead sponsor

University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

Other

Registry information

Important dates

Study start: 2018
Primary completion: 2022
Study completion: 2022
First posted: Oct 29, 2018
Registry last updated: Dec 20, 2022

OpenTrials presents study information sourced from ClinicalTrials.gov. The official registry record should be consulted for the latest information.

View the official ClinicalTrials.gov record (opens in a new tab)

This listing is for discovery and informational purposes only. It is not medical advice, does not guarantee that a study is recruiting, and does not determine eligibility. Contact the study team and a qualified healthcare professional when considering participation.

Published trials that share one or more normalized conditions with this study.

Completed