Les anévrismes intracrâniens présentent des risques importants en raison de leur taux de rupture élevé et des conséquences qui peuvent être fatales comme lors d’hémorragies méningées. Afin d’effectuer une recherche hémodynamique sur l’anévrisme intracrânien in vitro, un fantôme est indispensable. Jusqu’à présent, des fantômes rigides ou simplifiés sont utilisés dans littérature, peu d’entre eux sont suffisamment fidèle à la réalité. Le travail de cette thèse se concentre sur la méthodologie de fabrication des fantômes patient-spécifiques d’anévrismes intracrâniens ainsi que leur mise en œuvre pour différentes utilisations. Ces fantômes possèdent la forme anatomique de l’artère du patient et une paroi élastique. Ils sont fabriqués en appliquant une technique originale de prototypage rapide. Les fantômes sont vérifiés selon plusieurs aspects. Pour effectuer des recherches hémodynamiques sur les fantômes, un banc d’essai compatible avec différentes modalités d’imagerie a été conçu. L’angiographie par résonance magnétique 2D par contraste de phase a été utilisée pour étudier l’hémodynamique des fantômes. Le comportement dynamique de paroi, les trajectoires 3D du flux et son champ de vélocité sont analysés. L’application potentielle dans domaine clinique du fantôme patient-spécifique a été aussi testée dans cette thèse, des simulations d’intervention sur des anévrismes intracrâniens ont été effectuées sur le banc d’essai et les fantômes, les résultats de différentes méthodes ont été analysés et comparés. / Intracranial aneurysms are a hazard to human health because of their high rupture rate and fatal subsequence, such as subarachnoid hemorrhage. In order to carry out a hemodynamic research in vitro on the intracranial aneurysm, a phantom is indispensable. Until now, rigid or simplified phantoms are mainly used in the literature, few among them possess sufficient properties compared with reality. The work of this thesis focuses on the methodology of manufacturing patient-specific phantoms of intracranial aneurysms as well as their implementation for different uses. The phantoms have an anatomical shape of patient’s artery and an elastic wall. They are manufactured by applying an original rapid prototyping technique. The phantoms are examined and verified in different ways. In order to perform a hemodynamic research of the phantoms, a testing platform compatible with different imaging modalities has been designed and established. 2D phase-contrast magnetic resonance angiography was applied in the hemodynamic study of the phantoms. The dynamic behavior of the artery wall, the 3D path-line of flow and the velocity field of flow were analyzed. The potential application in the clinical domain of the patient-specific phantoms was also tested in this thesis, simulations of intervention on intracranial aneurysms were carried out with the testing platform and the phantoms, the results of different treatment strategies were analyzed and compared.

<p>Mice have become the preferred model system for studying brain function and disease. With the powerful genetic tools available, mouse models can be created to study the underlying molecular basis of neurobiology in vivo. Just as magnetic resonance imaging is the dominant tool for evaluating the human brain, high-resolution MRI--magnetic resonance microscopy (MRM)--is a useful tool for studying the brain of mouse models. However, the need for high spatial resolution limits the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the MRM images. To address this problem, T1-shortening contrast agents can be used, which not only improve the tissue contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) but also increase SNR by allowing the MR signal to recover faster between pulses. By "actively staining" the tissue with these T1-shortening agents, MRM can be performed with higher resolution, greater contrast, and shorter scan times. In this work, active staining with T1-shortening agents was used to enhance three types of in vivo mouse brain MRM: (1) angiographic imaging of the neurovasculature, (2) anatomical imaging of the brain parenchyma, and (3) functional imaging of neuronal activity.</p> <p></p> <p>For magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) of the mouse, typical contrast agents are not useful because they are quickly cleared by the body and/or extravasate from the blood pool before a high-resolution image can be acquired. To address these limitations, a novel contrast agent--SC-Gd liposomes--has been developed, which is cleared slowly by the body and is too large to extravasate from the blood pool. In this work, MRA protocols were optimized for both the standard technique (time-of-flight contrast) and SC-Gd liposomes. When the blood was stained with SC-Gd liposomes, small vessel CNR improved to 250% that of time-of-flight. The SC-Gd liposomes could also be used to reduce scan time by 75% while still improving CNR by 32%.</p> <p>For MRM of the mouse brain parenchyma, active staining has been used to make dramatic improvements in the imaging of ex vivo specimens. However for in vivo imaging, the blood-brain barrier (BBB) prevents T1-shortening agents from entering the brain parenchyma. In this work, a noninvasive technique was developed for BBB opening with microbubbles and ultrasound (BOMUS). Using BOMUS, the parenchyma of the brain could be actively stained with the T1-shortening contrast agent, Gd-DTPA, and MRM images could be acquired in vivo with unprecedented resolution (52 x 52 x 100 micrometers3) in less than 1 hour.</p> <p>Functional MRI (fMRI), which uses blood oxygen level dependant (BOLD) contrast to detect neuronal activity, has been a revolutionary technique for studying brain function in humans. However, in mice, BOLD contrast has been difficult to detect and thus routine fMRI in mice has not been feasible. An alternative approach for detecting neuronal activity uses manganese (Mn2+). Mn2+ is a T1-shortening agent that can enter depolarized neurons via calcium channels. Thus, Mn2+ is a functional contrast agent with affinity for active neurons. In this work, Mn2+ (administered with the BOMUS technique) was used to map the neuronal response to stimulation of the vibrissae. The resultant activation map showed close agreement to published maps of the posterior-lateral and anterior-medial barrel field of the primary sensory cortex.</p> <p>The use of T1-shortening agents to actively stain tissues of interest--blood, brain parenchyma, or active neurons--will facilitate the use of MRM for studying mouse models of brain development, function, and disease.</p> / Dissertation