Our Bruker BioSpec 70/30 USR Superconducting Magnet System has field strength 7-Tesla, equipped with 2 gradient systems, B-GA 12 S2 and B-GA 20S. The gradient systems have 200 mT/m amplitude, and slew rate 800 T/m/sec. It is equipped with high-power shim supplies which allow 6 channels and 2nd degree shims. There are two independent transmit channels which allow frequency ranging from 5 to 400 MHz as well as 4 receiver channels which allow parallel imaging and GRAPPA acceleration. The system has 1H and 19F multi-nuclear capability. Our system is equipped with several coils, including a large 154-mm quadrature transceiver coil for large animals, two 112/72-mm birdcage coils, 35mm-quadrature coil, and two 4-channel array coils for mouse and rat brains as well as three linear receiving coils which are 1cm, 2cm, and 3 cm in diameter. The MRI system is equipped with HP Z420 linux workstation as the console and AVIII electronic systems. Respiration was monitored using a pneumatic sensor placed between the animal bed and the mouse’s abdomen while rectal temperature was measured with a fiber optic sensor and maintained with feedback-controlled warm air source (SA Instruments, Stony Brook, NY, USA).
Available Application and Pulse Sequences
| Application | Synopsis | Pulse Sequences |
|---|---|---|
| Structural Imaging | Acquire T1 or T2 weighted structural images | RARE, TSE, TFL, GRE, SE, HASTE, MPRAGE, FLAIR |
| Spectroscopy | Localized 1H MRS for metabolite profiling | STEAM, SVS (PRESS) |
| Diffusion tensor imaging | Tractography, molecular self-diffusion | EPI_DIFF, SE_DIFF |
| DSC, DCE Perfusion | Exogenous Gd contrast studies | FL3D_CE, FLASH, Intragate |
| ASL Perfusion | Quantitative blood flow mapping with endogeneous arterial spin labeling | SE_ASL, EPI_PASL, EPI_pCASL |
| fMRI | BOLD functional MRI | EPI_BOLD |
| Cardiac | Fast imaging (GE or SE) with ECG and respiration gating for motion compensation | FLASH, RARE |
| Cardiac | Cardiac cine imaging | Intragate |
| Cardiac | Tagging | SPAMM, cSPAMM, or DANTE |
| Angiography | Visualize blood vessels, velocimetry | VENC_PC, FL_PC, FL_TOF, TRUFI, FL_FQ, TWIST |
| T1, T1ρ, T2, T2* Mapping | Multiple GE or SE (2D or 3D) imaging | MSME, SE_VTR, IR_TSE, SE_MC, GRE_MC, T1ρ_FISP |
| Ultra-short T2 for structural, proton density, T2, T2* mapping | Ultra-fast imaging | UTE, ZTE |