Krishna Nayak
University of Southern California, CA·Biomedical Engineering
Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) gives detailed pictures of soft tissue without radiation. It still struggles in two situations: organs that move, and tissue right next to metal.
- Fields
Biomedical Engineering
Medicine & Clinical Research
Physics
- Topics
magnetic resonance imaging
0.55 Tesla
low-field MRI
- Grants
- 2 known grants, through Dec 2027
What they work on
- Develop and technically validate volumetric real-time MRI data acquisition on a 0.55 Tesla scanner to image the moving heart and airway in 3D.
- Create low-latency volumetric real-time MRI reconstruction, artifact mitigation and automatic segmentation methods so 3D images of moving organs are available almost immediately.
- Clinically evaluate volumetric real-time MRI at the NIH Clinical Center in 20 patients with tracheomalacia or relapsing polychondritis and 20 patients undergoing MRI-guided cardiac catheterization.
- Adapt standard multi-spectral imaging (MSI), the leading method for imaging near metal, to 0.55T MRI to measure how much reduced off-resonance alone improves images around orthopedic implants.
- Redesign MSI pulse sequences to use the 0.55T system's strong gradients and radiofrequency performance, then compare 0.55T and 3T protocols in patients with hip replacements and spinal fixations.
More about the research
Both projects build on a new low-field 0.55 Tesla MRI platform. At this field strength, problems such as off-resonance effects (signal errors from small magnetic field differences), tissue heating and metal-induced distortion are smaller. The team develops imaging methods, software and reconstruction tools tuned to this platform and tests them in patients.
Why it matters
Hip replacements and spinal fixations fail in 10–40% of cases. Doctors currently cannot see the soft tissue next to the metal, where most complications arise. Clearer images there could improve diagnosis and surgical planning. Volumetric real-time MRI could help detect dynamic airway collapse in tracheomalacia and relapsing polychondritis and guide heart catheter procedures without radiation. It could also give a safer, quieter scanner option for imaging the heart, lungs and airway.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
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The school
University of Southern California: 47 labs on PI Pages, $1.3B a year on research, 882 research doctorates a year.
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