We are located in Mount Sinai School of Medicine. Go through the Klingenstein Clinical Center (KCC) Building (1450 Madison Avenue). Take the stairs one flight down or the elevator to the MC Level make a right and walk towards the renal treatment center turn left. Walk straight and make a right at the second opening (2nd door) continue to walk straight until you see the video machine - we are on the left (opposite of the video machine). We are between the video rental machine and the entrance to the passage way for the East Building.

Advanced Magnetic Resonance Imaging Suite (AMRIS)

1184 Fifth Avenue Radiology Associates
From outside The Mount Sinai Medical Center: 1176 Fifth Avenue. Enter the Klingenstein Pavilion on Fifth Avenue at 98th street. Take the lobby evevator to the MC level and exit to your right. Radiology Associates will be through the double doors directly in front of you.

Resources and Equipment

The Imaging Science Laboratories occupy 2,100 square feet and includes the Image Processing Laboratory, the Electronics Laboratory, the Small Animal Laboratory, the MR Microscopy laboratory, and offices. A new facility, the Advanced MRI suite (AMRIS) with two new state-of-art MR systems, has recently been added to ISL.

ISL is responsible for coordinating and executing all research projects performed on these MR systems.

Image Processing Laboratory

The Image Processing Laboratory maintains several networked computer systems and file servers for programming, word processing, slide and video preparation, data and image analyses, processing, review and transfer purposes. The computers include Windows-, Linux-, and Macintosh-based systems, as well Sun and SGI workstations systems. A flat bed scanner, a color wax printer, and a color dye sublimation printer are also available. These systems are used for word processing, data analysis, slide and video preparation and image processing. Computer archival in forms of DAT-tapes and CD-Rs are available.

Additionally, the laboratory has several dedicated image viewing and analyses workstations from Medis, Terarecon, GE Advantage Windows, and Siemens Leonardo.

Most of the software we use is locally developed (for diffusion tensor MRI, fMRI, and cardiovascular MRI analyses) and supported. We also have several packages, including Analyze, Matlab, ImageProPlus, Scion, efilm, MEDx including spm 96 and spm 99, and Brain voyager.

We utilize a variety of computer language compilers, including C, C++, FORTRAN, and Siemens IDEA.

The laboratory also has access to a 12-processor SGI Power Challenge XL (R10000) managed by the Center for Biomathematical Sciences.

MR Microscopy Laboratory

The laboratory houses the 9.4T (proton resonance at 400MHz) Bruker MR system (installed in January 2000). This superconducting actively shielded magnet system consists of a 8.9cm vertical bore with micro- and mini-imaging capabilities. The gradient coils are actively shielded gradient coils, capable of a maximum gradient strength 20 G/cm or 100 G/cm. Exchangeable RF birdcage resonators with: 38 mm, 30mm, 25 mm, 10 mm inner diameter are available. The RF resonators support user supplied air to maintain animal at physiological temperatures. An animal cradle designed for investigation of laboratory mice is optimized for use in the RF resonators and includes a provision for inhalation anesthesia. Two monitoring units (Bruker and SA Instruments Inc.) for ECG, heart rate, respiration rate, and temperature and for ECG and/or respiration triggering of MR sequences are available. An MR compatible mouse anesthesia delivery system is also available.

Advanced MRI Suite (AMRIS)

Two dedicated MR research systems were installed in March 2002 in the newly constructed Advanced MR Research Suite (AMRIS). The Advanced MR Research Suite of about 2,800 ft² houses a 1.5 Tesla whole body Siemens Scanner (Sonata), and a 3.0 Tesla Siemens head dedicated scanner Siemens Scanner (Allegra). AMRIS is located in front of the main entrance to Radiology Associates.

In addition to the MR systems, AMRIS includes a patient waiting area, a restroom, lockers and a changing room, a nurse’s station, staff offices, and a small computer area for image viewing and processing.

The research MRI systems are also equipped with a physiological monitoring system (Medrad, Inc.) including ECG, oxygen levels, and end tidal CO2 and blood pressure. An MR compatible animal respirator and anesthesia delivery system are available. A full resuscitation cart is available next to the MR systems.

The Siemens Sonata (1.5T) – MR5

This is a Siemens Sonata 1.5T a whole body1.6 m MR magnet system with a 60cm bore size, actively shielded magnet that support a maximum of 40cm field-of-view. The system has a gradient strength of 40mT/m and a slew rate of 200T/m/s, a 15 kW RF amplifier, and 8 RF preamp channels. This system has the necessary hardware and software to perform basic and clinical studies. This system supports the Syngo software on an NT platform. Several commercial and home-built coils are available.

The Siemens Allegra (3.0T) – MR6

This is a Siemens Allegra 3T head-only research magnet. This system has the necessary hardware and software to perform basic and clinical scans. Gradient hardware consists of a 36 cm I.D. asymmetric gradient coil capable of imaging at 60mT/m with slew rates in excess of 600 T/m/s at a duty cycle of 70 pecrent allowing single shot EPI at a sustained rate of 14 images/second. The system has a 15 kW RF amplifier, and 8 RF preamp channels. This system supports the Syngo software on an NT platform.

The 3T suite is also equipped with dedicated peripherals for functional MRI research:

• Three-channel fiber optic subject’s response buttons with standard mouse interface.
• Scanner initiated trigger for synchronizing stimuli paradigms with MR data acquisition (mouse or TTL).
• In-room LCD projection with rear projection screen. Custom PC based paradigms or standard video stimuli can be presented.
• For the comfort of the patient during the scan, he/she can be watching a video or listening to music.
• PC-based audio stimuli can be presented.
• A computerized 12-channel olfactometer is also available for fMRI in olfaction or memory research.

Addtional Resources

Siemens Sensation 16

The Siemens Somatom Sensation Cardiac is a 16 channel multislice scanner capable of slice collimations of 0.75mm or 1.5mm, with reconstructed slice thickness varying from 0.75mm to 10mm. In its standard mode scanning rotation times as short as 0.5 sec can be obtained. In the cardiac mode (Heartview CT) this time can be reduced to 0.42 seconds. In this latter mode the instrument is capable of temporal resolution of 105 ms, prospective EKG
triggering and retrospective EKG gating. In standard mode the pitch can vary from 0.5 to 1.5. The scanner is capable of isotropic volumetric reconstructions. The maximum table weight is 450 lbs. and table speed is 1-150 mm/sec.

Siemens Sensation 4

Two four channel multislice scanners are available. In a multislice mode they are capable of reconstructed slice widths of 1-10mm and in a single slice mode can obtain 0.5mm slice thickness.