Liffers A, Vogt M, Ermert H
Institute of High Frequency Engineering, Ruhr-University Bochum, D-44780 Bochum, Germany.
Biomed Tech (Berl). 2003 May;48(5):130-4. doi: 10.1515/bmte.2003.48.5.130.
Noninvasive imaging and characterization of the skin is of great interest in dermatology. In order to get relevant diagnostic information, high-resolution imaging techniques have to be applied. Ultrasonic imaging is a potential method for this purpose where the special requirements concerning the spatial resolution make it essential to apply high frequency ultrasound (HFUS). Alternatively, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), being a very promising imaging modality, also shows the perspective of becoming a valuable diagnostic tool in dermatology. However, to account for the small dimensions of the structures under observation, very specialized system designs have to be developed. In this paper, a HFUS imaging system working in the 50 MHz and 100 MHz range is applied for high-resolution skin imaging. Furthermore, a commercial MRI-system was equipped with specially designed low noise rf (radio frequency) coils with minimized volume, and customized imaging sequences were applied to optimize the signal-to-noise ratio. With HFUS and high-resolution magnetic resonance (HR-MR) imaging complementary imaging techniques for in vivo biomicroscopy of the skin are available.
皮肤的无创成像与特征分析在皮肤病学领域备受关注。为获取相关诊断信息，必须应用高分辨率成像技术。超声成像便是实现此目的的一种潜在方法，鉴于对空间分辨率的特殊要求，应用高频超声（HFUS）至关重要。另外，磁共振成像（MRI）作为一种非常有前景的成像方式，也展现出成为皮肤病学中有价值诊断工具的前景。然而，考虑到所观察结构的尺寸较小，必须研发非常专门的系统设计。本文中，一款工作在50兆赫兹和100兆赫兹范围的HFUS成像系统被用于高分辨率皮肤成像。此外，一台商用MRI系统配备了经过专门设计的、体积最小化的低噪声射频（rf）线圈，并应用定制的成像序列来优化信噪比。借助HFUS和高分辨率磁共振（HR-MR）成像，用于皮肤体内生物显微镜检查的互补成像技术得以实现。
