Put on a special "little vest", inhale the special xenon gas, hold your breath for 3-5 seconds, and the corners of the lungs will be clearly "visible".
htmlOn March 30, a reporter from Hubei Daily All-media learned from the Institute of Precision Measuring Science and Technology Innovation of the Chinese Academy of Sciences that the human lung gas magnetic resonance imaging equipment developed by the team led by the Zhou Xin researcher will soon be the first to enter the clinical trial in the world. This equipment breaks through a number of key core technologies, has internationally leading core indicators, and has achieved independent control of high-end medical equipment, which will make important contributions to the early diagnosis and early treatment of lung patients.Let the lung "killer" have nowhere to hide
Lung diseases are a major factor that seriously threatens people's lives and health, and lung cancer ranks first among the onset of malignant tumors in my country. It is crucial to improve the detection technology level of lung diseases and screen lung diseases in a timely manner, so as to achieve early detection, early diagnosis and early treatment.
Zhou Xin told Hubei Daily All-Media reporter that conventional imaging detection methods in the lungs include chest X-ray, CT and PET, but these technologies have certain defects. Magnetic resonance imaging technology is a detection method that is non-destructive and ionizing radiation-free to the human body. It can image the structure and functions of most tissues and organs of the human body, but the lungs are "black holes" in clinical magnetic resonance imaging.
"The current clinical magnetic resonance imaging signal comes from the signal of water protons in the human body. The lungs are cavity tissue, and the density of water protons is about 1,000 times lower than that of normal tissue, so imaging of cavity gas in the lungs cannot be achieved." Zhou Xin explained.
With the support of the National Natural Science Foundation of National Major Scientific Research Instruments and Equipment Development Project (recommended by the Ministry and Commission), Zhou Xin led the team to make a series of major technological breakthroughs in the preparation of hyperpolarized gas, rapid magnetic resonance imaging and reconstruction of lung gas, and compatibility of conventional clinical magnetic resonance imaging equipment: the developed medical xenon gas generator can enhance the magnetic resonance signal by 70,000 times, making the lung gas magnetic resonance imaging from "not visible" to "visible"; the rapid lung imaging technology will improve the "visible" to "see clearly"; the wearable human lung gas magnetic resonance imaging probe and lift and lower frequency multi-channel radio frequency device complete the leap from "see clearly" to "good-looking".
Relevant person in charge of Hubei Provincial Department of Science and Technology introduced that gas magnetic resonance imaging equipment in the human lungs effectively solves the scientific problems behind the bottleneck technology of lung structure and function, leaving the "killers" of lung diseases nowhere to hide. At the same time, this achievement has achieved only one of the rare original innovations in my country's high-end medical equipment and achieved independent control.
"Don't seek a stunning success, just fight to the end"
The gas magnetic resonance imaging equipment in the human lungs is on the "ten minutes on the stage", behind which is Zhou Xin's hard work to lead the team to "ten years of hard work".
"Come back, China is now vigorously developing technology." In 2009, a sentence from Ye Chaohui Academician asked Zhou Xin to give up the generous treatment abroad and return to China. One person is a team, and his "laboratory" occupies the "6 floor tiles" in the lobby of the institute. He personally does the fixation of a screw, and it is normal to work until the early morning.
Zhou Xin said that the discipline of nuclear magnetic resonance in the Wuhan Institute of Physics and Mathematics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (the predecessor of the Institute of Precision Measuring) has a history of more than half a century. The patriotic and innovative spirit of two generations of scientists such as Academician Ye Chaohui and Academician Liu Maili have made the discipline at the forefront of the world.
In the 1990s, Zhou Xin was a student here. At that time, imported instruments were expensive and could not be repaired, and "strike" was "common".
"Doctoral for 5 years, I spent most of my time repairing instruments." Zhou Xin said that this experience made him deeply realize that scientific research must innovate independently.
From returning to China alone to a team of 70 people, from "6 floor tiles" to a laboratory of international attention, Zhou Xin led the team to live up to expectations, achieving a breakthrough in my country's lung gas magnetic resonance technology from scratch, breaking foreign technology blockade, and leading core technical indicators internationally.
12 years, behind the success is countless failures.Zhou Xin's student and engineer of the Magnetic Resonance Center said that during the days of sitting on the "cold bench", the teacher often said: "Doing scientific research, you don't want to make a big splash, you just want to fight to the end!"
Doing scientific research takes national needs as its responsibility
At 12 pm on January 22, 2020, there are still 10 hours before Wuhan's traffic control. Zhou Xin took the last flight from Beijing back to Wuhan.
"I'm rushing back to Wuhan at this time, I can't charge you for fares." On the way to the airport, a taxi driver in Beijing said to Zhou Xin. Other core members of the team also tried every means to rush back to Wuhan from all over the country. Among them, Li Haidong, an associate researcher who was about to get married, quietly left a letter to his family and drove back to Wuhan from Henan overnight. Li Haidong has been studying and working in Zhou Xin's team for more than ten years. He said: "Teacher Zhou often says that in doing scientific research, we must find the right direction, and combine personal interests with major scientific issues and national needs."
With the support of Zhang Dingyu, the former director of Wuhan Jinyintan Hospital and Zhang Dingyu, the team installed the developed human lung gas magnetic resonance imaging equipment at Wuhan Jinyintan Hospital, and was the first in the world to carry out clinical evaluation of lung function in patients with new coronavirus pneumonia. At the same time, the equipment was also applied to the front line of the fight against the epidemic such as Wuhan Tongji Hospital, and a total of more than 1,500 patients with new coronavirus were subject to a comprehensive assessment of lung microstructure and functions.
study found that although there were no abnormalities in lung CT images and blown lung function parameters of patients discharged from general symptoms, gas magnetic resonance imaging images showed that their ventilation function was slightly damaged and the qi and blood exchange function was significantly impaired. The ventilation and qi and blood exchange functions of most patients discharged from general symptoms improved progressively at the 6th month follow-up.
This achievement has received high attention from international peers. Zhou Xin was invited by the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in the United States to give an online academic report. The University of Oxford in the United Kingdom and other institutions followed up to carry out relevant research, pointing out: "Gas magnetic resonance imaging technology can accurately locate the physiologically damaged parts of the lungs."
Since then, the device has conducted clinical research in more than ten hospitals across the country.
Scientific research results are the world's leading research results in Hubei
12 years ago, when Zhou Xin's team launched this research, the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and other countries had already started early. But now, my country's technological achievements are ahead of the world. Zhou Xin believes that the country and Hubei attach importance to and support for scientific and technological innovation is the key.
At present, the Institute of Precision Measuring Science and Technology Innovation of the Chinese Academy of Sciences invested in intellectual property rights, and Hengdian Group and Shanghai Lianying invested cash to jointly establish " Wuhan Zhongke Polarization Medical Technology Co., Ltd. ", responsible for the industrialization of gas magnetic resonance imaging equipment in the human lungs, with the expected market space reaching more than 10 billion yuan.
Zhou Xin introduced that the National Major Scientific Research Instrument and Equipment Development Project of the Foundation has previously supported 44 million yuan in lung gas magnetic resonance imaging equipment, which is also the largest type of project for the development of basic original instruments. Hubei is supporting the Institute of Precision Measuring Science and Technology Innovation of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Huazhong University of Science and Technology to jointly build major scientific and technological infrastructure for biomedical imaging. After the completion of this project, it will provide an advanced scientific research environment and experimental conditions for the development and application of basic biomedical research, high-end life science instruments and medical imaging equipment in my country, and comprehensively improve the ability to carry out original research in the cutting-edge biomedical and health fields.
reporter learned that the gas magnetic resonance imaging equipment of human lungs has passed the special review of innovative medical devices of the National Medical Products Administration and is expected to obtain the world's first human multinuclear gas magnetic resonance (medical device registration) certificate this year.
(Hubei Daily All-Media Reporter Wen Jun, Correspondent Yang Tingting, Wang Yihao)
Source: Jingchu.com
