A unique opportunity to place a 3.0 Tesla MRI device inside a Neuroscience Intensive Care Unit exists at the Massachusetts General Hospital. The MGHICU is one of the largest Neuroscience ICUs in the country (17 beds) and the clinical staff are eager to site an imaging device within the ICU. MGH also is home to the A.A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging (formerly known as the MGH-NMR Center), where a number of advances in functional neuroimaging techniques have been made. Furthermore, the Martinos Center has gained experience with outpatient 3.0 Tesla units over the past seven years. As funding for scientific work in inpatients has increased, there has arisen a critical need for additional research imaging capabilities to support this group of researchers. A key assumption underlying this proposal is that patients in an intensive care unit represent an unusual opportunity to learn about disease and biology. Since these subjects are difficult to bring to the instrumentation, we seek to gain these insights by bringing the instrumentation to them. The MRI system, a head-only imaging device, is small enough and light enough to be installed on the 12th floor of the Blake Building of the main MGH campus. The instrument was chosen for its size, high gradient performance and software capabilities, as well as its compatibility with existing instrumentation and custom software developed by this group of investigators. This proposal requests funding for the construction necessary to prepare the Neuro ICU space for this magnet.
