Purchase Description.pdf

Version 11-30-2016-1 FAR Part 11—Describing Agency Needs

PURCHASE DESCRIPTION

1. Statement of Need and Purpose: This request covers the purchase of a mouse heart array coil for cardiac MRI at 7 Tesla. This coil will support cardiovascular studies of transgenic and wild type mice as a function of aging using our Biospec 70/30 MRI scanner.

2. Background Information and Objective: On both clinical and preclinical MRI scanners, most imaging is performed using a combination of a body coil, which surrounds the subject and transmits radio waves to excite nuclear spins, and a small surface coil or array, which receives the resulting radio-frequency signal from the area of interest, e.g. the heart. On NIA’s Bruker Biospec 70/30 MRI scanner, the receive-only coil is an array with a size and shape tailored to fit the anatomy of interest. We have such array coils for mouse head and body imaging but not for cardiac imaging. Matching the size, shape and location of the mouse heart is important for receiving signal from the entire heart while maximizing signal-to-noise ratio. Given the small size of the mouse heart, its rapid contraction cycle and the limited time available to scan live animals under anesthesia, having a receive-only coil optimized for mouse cardiac imaging is key to generating reliable results for quantitative analysis. Since studies of cardiac aging in mice often hinge on detecting subtle differences in chamber volumes, wall thicknesses and muscle composition, we feel that purchasing a dedicated mouse cardiac coil is justified by our research needs.

3. Generic Name of Product: Pre-clinical MRI receive-only array coil

4. Purchase Description: Mouse cardiac array coil for 7 Tesla MRI scanner, Bruker Biospin, Inc. product code MT0047-01

5. Salient characteristics:

a. Anatomically-shaped to fit mice up to 50 g in body weight (anatomically-matched, curved inner shape required to maximize signal-to-noise ratio in MRI heart data)

b. Four channels in 2 X 2 coil element topology (required for parallel imaging acceleration with whole-heart coverage)

c. Fixed-tuned to 300.1 MHz (proton frequency at 7 Tesla)

d. Coil active length of at least +/- 16 mm and width at least +/- 16 mm (required for full heart coverage)

e. Coil signal-to-noise ratio at least 4600/ mm-3 through center of each array element when scanning 50 ml tube of 150 mM saline using Bruker standard quality control test

Version 11-30-2016-1 FAR Part 11—Describing Agency Needs

(required for acquiring MRI data of sufficient quality for quantitative volumetric, functional and compositional analyses).

f. Receive-only operation with active coil detuning (required for homogeneous excitation with a volume coil operating in transmit-only mode)

g. Physically and electromagnetically compatible with existing Bruker 86 mm quadrature volume coil operating in transmit-only or transmit-receive mode (required for homogeneous excitation and for combined heart-body studies, respectively).

h. Compatible with Bruker Biospec Avance IIIHD MRI console and ParaVision 6 software (required for safety: operator is prevented from damaging receive-only array by applying excessive power to transmit-only volume coil)

i. Electrical connection via ODU plug with HWIDS chip for automatic recognition in ParaVision 6 (required for safety: operator is prevented from applying transmitter power to receive-only coil)

j. Attaches to Bruker mouse beds without interfering with bite bar or ear bars (required to prevent body motion during scanning, which would cause blurring and other image artifacts)

k. Fits mounting pegs in Bruker mouse beds (required to fix coil to bed to maintain mutual alignment of heart, array coil, volume coil, gradient/shim coil and magnet centers).

l. 12 month warranty

4. Quantity: 1

5. Delivery Date: Approximately 180 days ARO