Open Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Instrument Research for Intracranial Detection

Patients with traumatic brain injury are difficult to be moved and the patients cannot get prompt treatment, but the real-time detection can be carried out for the intracranial disease. Changes of moisture content in brain can represent the severity of cerebral edema directly. This paper presents an open nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) system for brain edema detection. It can detect the moisture content in different positions of the brain by measuring NMR signals at different depths in target area. After demonstrating the optimal selections of the main magnet and radio frequency (RF) coil, a printed circuit board (PCB) of bilayer splayed coil and its capacitor matching circuit are made, then an open NMR system is established. Using flour and cosmetic cotton in the magnet target area as samples, the NMR system's reliability and accuracy are proved through experiments. Experimental results show that the system designed can detect moisture content in the object at different positions, and consequently for real-time detection of cerebral edema. Due to the system's portability, miniaturization, and low cost, it can provide experiment support for further application of open NMR instrument in clinical.