Increased volume coverage in 3D magnetic particle imaging

Magnetic particle imaging (MPI) is a new tomographic imaging approach that detects and localizes magnetic nano-particles by their non-linear magnetization response to externally applied fields. MPI allows quantitative, sensitive, and rapid volumetric imaging of distributions of particles injected into the blood stream. Initial experiments showing 3D real-time in-vivo imaging of mice were conducted using small imaging volumes covering a single organ. In view of scaling up the hardware for future clinical imaging, the imaging volume has to be increased. This contribution describes the basics of particle detection and spatial encoding in MPI, limitations to the imaging volume, and one approach to circumvent these limitations. Experimental results with increased volume coverage are presented.