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Latest scientific news

Andreas Kofler (PTB) published together with Kirsten Kerkering (PTB), Laura Göschel (Charité-Unviersitätsmedizin Berlin), Ariane Fillmer (PTB) and Christoph Kolbitsch (PTB) an article in IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering.

The article describes a new method for obtaining quantitative MR parameters using adaptive dictionary learning and sparse coding. Instead of applying dictionary...

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If an electrical device, or even a simple cable or electrode, is used in an MRI or in its immediate vicinity, this device may interact with the strong electromagnetic fields of the MRI. The consequences can be MR images distorted to the point of uselessness, destroyed equipment and, in the worst case, even injuries to the patient in the scanner. Especially small manufacturers with innovative...

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Image reconstruction tasks have seen promising advancements with the use of deep learning (DL) algorithms. However, due to the black-box nature of these algorithms, it is crucial to establish a metric, such as the uncertainty of the network's output, to detect DL artifacts that could be mistaken for pathologies or hinder the accurate detection of actual pathologies. Tackling this issue becomes...

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OpenLab MedTec

On 22nd of June, the OpenLab MedTec at the Bundeswehrkrankenhaus (BWKH) in Hamburg, Germany was officially launched. The collaborative project of PTB, BWKH and the Helmut-Schmidt Universität (HSU) in Hamburg hosted the workshop right in the heart of the hospital. Great keynote speakers addressed challenges and opportunities of open-source medical hardware dealing with technical and regulatory...

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Patrick Schünke was awarded the "Best Open Source Tool Award" by the "Quantitative MR study group" at this year's conference of the International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine (ISMRM). Patrick Schünke (PTB), Moritz Zaiss (FAU Erlangen), and Kai Herz (MPI Tübingen), along with colleagues from six other institutions, have developed software to enhance the compatibility and...

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The acquisition of quantitative (bio-)physical parameter maps of the heart is very challenging due to respiration and heartbeat. Kirsten Kerkering, Tobias Schäffter and Christoph Kolbitsch (PTB), together with clinical partners at the Charité (Jeanette Schulz-Menger), have developed an approach that reduces the scan time by a factor of 5 compared to the clinical standard.

In clinical...

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Successful day for PhD students Johannes Petzold (left) and Berk Silemek (right). At the meeting of the study group on MRI Safety at this year's annual meeting of the International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine (ISMRM) in Toronto, ON, Canada, both were awarded a study group award for their excellent contributions to the field. Johannes received the third prize for his work on "Exper...

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In an international collaboration led by University College London, a reference phantom for quantitative MRI imaging of the heart, called T2MES, was developed and tested over twelve months. Spatially resolved measurements of the transverse relaxation time T2 provide clues to edema, inflammation, and other diseases of the myocardium, but in clinical practice measurement results are often...

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In a collaboration of PTB departments 1.6 and 8.1 with the Simone Kühne's group at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin investigate, it was investigated on a group of volunteers whether and, if so, how the human brain reacts to ultrasound stimuli when these are offered at sound levels below the individual hearing threshold. By functional MRI measurements it was found that a...

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The predecessor had served us well for more than 13 years, but eventually it was time to replace it. On May 09, 2023, PTB's new 3T MRI arrived on our premises and was lowered into the historic "Quarzuhrenkeller". Distinguishing feature of the new Cima.X model from Siemens Healthineers, first installation of its kind in Europe, are the powerful gradients. Rated at 200 mT/m they outperform the...

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