Development of an MCG/MEG system for small animals and its noise reduction method

Accurate capture of the biomagnetic signals from a rat or a mouse greatly benefits the development of new medicine and pathology. In order to improve the efficiency and accuracy of biomagnetic measurement of small animals, we developed a biomagnetic measurement system specific to small animal measurement. A superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) sensor array and a table for the system were newly developed and were integrated into a transportable chassis having dimensions of 1.3 m width × 0.7 m depth × 1.8 m height and housing all principal components for the system. The integrated 9ch low-Tc SQUIDs magnetometer array designed to improve spatial resolution covers 8 mm × 8mm measurement area. We have also developed a real-time noise canceling method suitable for this system. The advantage of this method is that the noise reduction process is carried out in real time. We have confirmed the efficacy of this method using the measurement system which was installed in typical laboratory environment. The noise reduction effect was measured to be roughly 16 dB at power line frequency and its harmonics. We measured an magnetocardiogram (MCG) of a mouse using the system with the real-time noise canceling method, and the feasibility of small animal MCG measurement was ensured.