MRI-Compatible Hyper/Hypobaric Chamber

Hyperbaric and hypobaric environments are known to have profound effects on the physiology of animals and humans. These effects can limit mission capabilities or, in some cases, even be life threatening. In other cases these environments can induce very beneficial, sometimes life saving health effects. Even though many of these overall health effects have been known for many decades, the underlying physiology is often poorly understood because there is a lack of available instrumentation to directly observe the fundamental phenomena of interest under hypo/hyperbaric conditions. Herein, we propose the development of a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) compatible hypo/hyperbaric chamber that will provide a very powerful imaging capability for hyperbaric medicine research. The chamber will be designed for ease of use and flexibility to accommodate a broad range of future experiments. Our initial focus will be on a chamber certified for animal use with the long term objective of transitioning to human use certification. Phase I will focus on working with the hyperbaric research community to define system specifications and developing a preliminary design. In Phase II we will construct a prototype chamber and conduct initial animal experiments to prove out the design and demonstrate the utility of the chamber as a research tool.