Biomedical Imaging

Magnetoencephalography (MEG)
STARCryo's ultra-sensitive SQUID sensors based on low temperature superconductor (LTS) thin films are in use at a number of leading research institutions around the world to record and localize the magnetic signals associated with neuronal activity in the human brain. Magnetoencephalography (MEG) is emerging as the primary tool to investigate brain activity with high spatial as well as high temporal resolution. Other competing techniques such as functional MRI, SPECT or PET cannot offer the millisecond temporal resolution attainable with MEG.

Magnetoencephalography is an essential tool for mapping functional brain activity and may be superposed with MRI data in order to correlate the localized activity in the brain with anatomical information. This data is invaluable for pre-operative surgical planning, and US insurance companies are now paying reimbursements for this procedure.

(shown above: Whole-head MEG system manufactured and offered by Eagle Technology and internal helmet assembly showing sockets for STARCryo LTS SQUID gradiometer sensors.)

Magnetocardiography (MCG)
In the Western world, 6,000,000 people die every year from heart diseases. During the past few years, there have been significant advances in the development of magnetic imaging technologies for cardiology, and numerous studies have demonstrated the advantages of magnetocardiography (MCG) in clinical applications. For example, there are approximately 300,000 cases of Sudden Cardiac Death (SCD) annually in the US alone, and of those individuals that survive a near-miss SCD episode around 40% will die from an arrhythmia within two years. Although an Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator (ICD) can reduce the mortality rate significantly, there is no known clinical diagnostic method available for accurate risk analysis of SCD. Recent studies have shown that MCG may be an accurate tool for risk analysis of SCD via the detection of Ventricular Tachyarrhythmia. Early diagnosis of ischemia is another important application for MCG. Studies have shown that ischemia at a very early stage can be observed using MCG but not using electrical measurement techniques (e.g., EKG). STARCryo ultra-sensitive dc SQUID sensors are ideally suited for applications such as MCG.