CUBIC radiographers awarded first prize in SMRT abstract submissions

CUBIC radiographers were awarded not one but two first prize oral presentations in the SMRT abstract submissions this year - in both the clinical and research categories.

Petty Samuels received the First Place Clinical Focus Award for her abstract titled  'Improving MR Spectroscopy in the liver with a small number of averages by accurate voxel placement'. She and her co-authors showed that placing a spectroscopy voxel at least 10mm from the periphery in segment 7 of the liver rather than in segment 8 achieves narrower linewidths and improves discrimination between middle chain methylene, methyl groups and glycogen peaks.

Ingrid Op't Hof was awarded the First Place Research Focus Award for her abstract "Examining the effects of SMS and GRAPPA acceleration on resting state fMRI signal quality" where she showed that acceleration of fMRI acquisition using parallel imaging (GRAPPA) and simultaneous multi-slice imaging (SMS) reduces temporal SNR (tSNR), with a larger effect for GRAPPA. She and her co-authors suggest that a GRAPPA factor of 2 with an SMS factor of 2 provides a good compromise between fast acquisition and acceptable tSNR.

They will both present their work at the 27th annual meeting of the Society for MR radiographers and technologists (SMRT) in Paris in June. Congratulations on this excellent recognition!