Quantitative imaging by MRI has an established role in clinical research as it is non-invasive and doesn’t use ionising radiation. Examples include skeletal muscle therapy trials in neuromuscular diseases, and trials to determine the effect of diet or exercise interventions on liver and pancreas fat depots in type 2 diabetes.

MRI scans can require patients to lie still for anything up to one hour and often to repeatedly hold their breath. Adding MRI to a clinical trial can also be expensive.

This project develops and validates novel acceleration techniques that will reduce scan times by up to a factor of five. This improves patient comfort and reduces cost.

In particular the IMPRESS project will deliver three accelerated clinical research applications of proven utility. These include:

• skeletal muscle fat fraction assessment of disease progression in muscular dystrophy
• quantification of liver and pancreas fat content in type 2 diabetes
• cardiac function assessment in neuromuscular diseases

Methodological MRI development work is carried out on our clinical and preclinical MRI systems by members of the MR Physics Team.

Other methodological developments are made surrounding imaging tracers and in medical physics.