IT’IS Wins Award for Best Abstract in Session at the 2017 Annual Meeting of the International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine

The 25th Annual Meeting & Exhibition of the International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine (ISMRM), the largest conference that focuses on magnetic resonance techniques in medicine and biology, is being held this year in Honolulu, Hawaii, April 22 – 27. Manuel Murbach, a project leader at the IT’IS Foundation, is this year's winner of the meeting's best abstract award in a joint session on High Field Systems & Applications & MR Safety. Manuel's winning presentation – co-authored by Bryn Lloyd, Esra Neufeld, and Niels Kuster of the IT'IS Foundation and Wolfgang Kainz of the US Food and Drug Administration, is entitled "Morphing and Posing of Computational Anatomical Models: Enhanced Patient-Specific MRI RF Exposure Prediction". Manuel's abstract was chosen for the award from among a group of more than 20 entries.

In the presentation, refined morphing techniques for computational anatomical models developed at IT'IS are described, and the benefits for estimating personalized radiofrequency (RF) absorption during magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans are explored. The current conservative MRI safety standards for exposure to RF fields are intended to protect the entire patient population. The limits set on whole-body average specific absorption rate (SAR), which take the patient’s weight into consideration, allow for robust but only very rudimentary estimation of patient-specific exposures. The improved accuracy in the estimation of in silico local exposure enabled by combined morphing and posing in computational anatomical human models could substantially reduce the safety margins necessary for conservative assessment of RF exposure. Click here to download a copy of the winning abstract.

Congratulations Manuel!

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