arXiv subjects

William A. Grissom

Publications and source records attributed to William A. Grissom.

6 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

An MRI-Guided Robotic System to Improve Hippocampal Access for Epilepsy Interventions

This paper presents an MRI-guided robotic system that improves hippocampal access by delivering a curved needle-like laser ablator through the foramen ovale, a natural opening in the base of the skull. Both the delivery path and the curved nature of the needle improve upon current clinical straight-line laser interstitial thermal therapy (LITT) as measured by hippocampal cannulation percentage. We describe the design of the robotic system which includes positioning, aiming, and curved needle deployment stages, followed by experimental results assessing cannulation percentages using MRI images in phantoms. In three curvilinear, single-insertion experiments, we achieved cannulation percentages of 93.5%, 96.5%, and 60.4%, exceeding reported clinical averages of 50-60%. Seizure control is believed by physicians to be a function of hippocampal volume treated, and our system provides a means of treating a greater volume of the hippocampus with LITT-based interventions.

cs.RO↗

arXiv2024

A Minibatch Alternating Projections Algorithm for Robust and Efficient Magnitude Least-Squares RF Pulse Design in MRI

A magnitude-least-squares radiofrequency pulse design algorithm is reported which uses interleaved exact and stochastically-generated inexact updates to escape local minima and find low-cost solutions. Inexact updates are performed using a small randomly selected minibatch of the available B1+ measurements to update RF pulse weights, which perturbs the sequence of alternating projections. Applications to RF shimming, parallel transmit spokes RF pulse design, and spectral-spatial RF pulse design are considered. Numerical and simulation studies characterized the optimal minibatch size, which was found to consistently produce lower power and lower RMSE solutions across subjects, coil geometries, B1+ resolutions and orientations. The method was validated in-vivo at 7 Tesla and produced improvements in image quality in a slice-by-slice RF-shimmed imaging sequence. Compared to conventional methods, the pulse design method can more robustly design RF pulses that correct for B1+ inhomogeneities at ultra-high field strengths, and enable pulse designs to be completed with increased computational efficiency

physics.med-ph↗

arXiv2020

Ultra-high spatial resolution BOLD fMRI in humans using combined segmented-accelerated VFA-FLEET with a recursive RF pulse design

Purpose To alleviate the spatial encoding limitations of single-shot EPI by developing multi-shot segmented EPI for ultra-high-resolution fMRI with reduced ghosting artifacts from subject motion and respiration. Methods Segmented EPI can reduce readout duration and reduce acceleration factors, however, the time elapsed between segment acquisitions (on the order of seconds) can result in intermittent ghosting, limiting its use for fMRI. Here, "FLEET" segment ordering--where segments are looped over before slices--was combined with a variable flip angle progression (VFA-FLEET) to improve inter-segment fidelity and maximize signal for fMRI. Scaling a sinc pulse's flip angle for each segment (VFA-FLEET-Sinc) produced inconsistent slice profiles and ghosting, therefore, a recursive Shinnar-Le Roux (SLR) RF pulse design was developed (VFA-FLEET-SLR) to generate unique pulses for every segment that together produce consistent slice profiles and signals. Results The temporal stability of VFA-FLEET-SLR was compared against conventional-segmented EPI and VFA-FLEET-Sinc at 3 T and 7 T. VFA-FLEET-SLR showed reductions in both intermittent and stable ghosting compared to conventional-segmented and VFA-FLEET-Sinc, resulting in improved image quality with a minor trade-off in temporal SNR. Combining VFA-FLEET-SLR with acceleration, we achieved a 0.6-mm isotropic acquisition at 7 T--without zoomed imaging or partial Fourier--demonstrating reliable detection of BOLD responses to a visual stimulus. To counteract the increased repetition time from segmentation, simultaneous multi-slice VFA-FLEET-SLR was demonstrated using RF-encoded controlled aliasing. Conclusions VFA-FLEET with a recursive RF pulse design supports acquisitions with low levels of artifact and spatial blur, enabling fMRI at previously inaccessible spatial resolutions with a "full-brain" field of view.

physics.med-ph↗

arXiv2019

Accelerated spin-echo fMRI using Multisection Excitation by Simultaneous Spin-echo Interleaving (MESSI) with complex-encoded generalized SLIce Dithered Enhanced Resolution (cgSlider) Simultaneous Multi-Slice Echo-Planar Imaging

Spin-echo functional MRI (SE-fMRI) has the potential to improve spatial specificity when compared to gradient-echo fMRI. However, high spatiotemporal resolution SE-fMRI with large slice-coverage is challenging as SE-fMRI requires a long echo time (TE) to generate blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) contrast, leading to long repetition times (TR). The aim of this work is to develop an acquisition method that enhances the slice-coverage of SE-fMRI at high spatiotemporal resolution. An acquisition scheme was developed entitled Multisection Excitation by Simultaneous Spin-echo Interleaving (MESSI) with complex-encoded generalized SLIce Dithered Enhanced Resolution (cgSlider). MESSI utilizes the dead-time during the long TE by interleaving the excitation and readout of two slices to enable 2x slice-acceleration, while cgSlider utilizes the stable temporal background phase in SE-fMRI to encode and decode two adjacent slices simultaneously with a phase-constrained reconstruction method. The proposed cgSlider-MESSI was also combined with Simultaneous Multi-Slice (SMS) to achieve further slice-acceleration. This combined approach was used to achieve 1.5mm isotropic whole-brain SE-fMRI with a temporal resolution of 1.5s and was evaluated using sensory stimulation and breath-hold tasks at 3T. Compared to conventional SE-SMS, cgSlider-MESSI-SMS provides four-fold increase in slice-coverage for the same TR, with comparable temporal signal-to-noise ratio. Corresponding fMRI activation from cgSlider-MESSI-SMS for both fMRI tasks were consistent with those from conventional SE-SMS. Overall, cgSlider-MESSI-SMS achieved a 32x encoding-acceleration by combining RinplanexMBxcgSliderxMESSI=4x2x2x2. High-quality, high-resolution whole-brain SE-fMRI was acquired at a short TR using cgSlider-MESSI-SMS.

physics.med-ph↗

arXiv2019

High-fidelity, high-isotropic resolution diffusion imaging through gSlider acquisition with B1+ & T1 corrections and integrated ΔB0/Rx shim array

Purpose: B1+ and T1 corrections and dynamic multi-coil shimming approaches were proposed to improve the fidelity of high isotropic resolution Generalized slice dithered enhanced resolution (gSlider) diffusion imaging. Methods: An extended reconstruction incorporating B1+ inhomogeneity and T1 recovery information was developed to mitigate slab-boundary artifacts in short-TR gSlider acquisitions. Slab-by-slab dynamic B0 shimming using a multi-coil integrated ΔB0/Rx shim-array, and high in-plane acceleration (Rinplane=4) achieved with virtual-coil GRAPPA were also incorporated into a 1 mm isotropic resolution gSlider acquisition/reconstruction framework to achieve an 8-11 fold reduction in geometric distortion compared to single-shot EPI. Results: The slab-boundary artifacts were alleviated by the proposed B1+ and T1 corrections compared to the standard gSlider reconstruction pipeline for short-TR acquisitions. Dynamic shimming provided >50% reduction in geometric distortion compared to conventional global 2nd order shimming. 1 mm isotropic resolution diffusion data show that the typically problematic temporal and frontal lobes of the brain can be imaged with high geometric fidelity using dynamic shimming. Conclusions: The proposed B1+ and T1 corrections and local-field control substantially improved the fidelity of high isotropic resolution diffusion imaging, with reduced slab-boundary artifacts and geometric distortion compared to conventional gSlider acquisition and reconstruction. This enabled high-fidelity whole-brain 1 mm isotropic diffusion imaging with 64 diffusion-directions in 20 minutes using a 3T clinical scanner.

physics.med-ph↗

arXiv2017

Ghost Reduction in Echo-Planar Imaging by Joint Reconstruction of Images and Line-to-Line Delays and Phase Errors

PURPOSE: To correct line-to-line delays and phase errors in echo-planar imaging (EPI). THEORY AND METHODS: EPI- trajectory auto-corrected image reconstruction (EPI-TrACR) is an iterative maximum-likelihood technique that exploits data redundancy provided by multiple receive coils between nearby lines of k-space to determine and correct line-to-line trajectory delays and phase errors that cause ghosting artifacts. EPI-TrACR was applied to in vivo data acquired at 7 Tesla across acceleration and multishot factors, and in a dynamic time series. The method was efficiently implemented using a segmented FFT and compared to a conventional calibrated reconstruction. RESULTS: Compared to conventional calibrated reconstructions, EPI-TrACR reduced ghosting up to moderate acceleration factors and across multishot factors. It also maintained low ghosting in a dynamic time series. Averaged over all cases, EPI-TrACR reduced root-mean-square ghosted signal outside the brain by 27% compared to calibrated reconstruction. CONCLUSION: EPI-TrACR is effective in automatically correcting line-to-line delays and phase errors in multishot, accelerated, and dynamic EPI. While the method benefits from additional calibration data, it is not a requirement.

physics.med-ph↗