Inactive

DISCLAIMER This RFI is issued solely for information and planning purposes only and does not constitute a solicitation. All information received in response to this RFI that is marked as proprietary w... DISCLAIMER This RFI is issued solely for information and planning purposes only and does not constitute a solicitation. All information received in response to this RFI that is marked as proprietary will be handled accordingly. In accordance with FAR 15.201(e), responses to this notice are not offers and cannot be accepted by the Government to form a binding contract. Responders are solely responsible for all expenses associated with responding to this RFI. The Department of Veterans Affairs, Veterans Health Administration (VHA), Network Contracting Office 20 (NCO 20) is conducting a market survey and is seeking potential sources for : Magnetic Resonance Imaging Services This Sources Sought Notice is issued for information and planning purposes only. This is not a solicitation or a request for proposal and shall not be construed as an obligation or commitment by the Government. An award will not be made on any offers submitted in response to this notice, and it shall not be implied the Government is committed to providing any solicitation or award following this notice. The Government will not pay for any information received in response to this request, nor will the Government compensate a respondent for any costs incurred in developing the information provided.   Responses shall be submitted to Denise Patches at Denise.Patches@va.gov by COB:05/17/2024 by 2:00 PM PST SUBJECT: RFI 36C26024Q0558 Magnetic Resonance Imaging Services This notice is intended strictly for market research. The purpose of this Sources Sought Notice is to determine interest and capability of potential qualified sources of supply and determine the socioeconomic size classification of the supplier and manufacturer of the end item.  Interested companies shall provide, at a minimum, the following information with their response;   Company Name and Address: Point of Contact (POC) Name: Email Address: Phone Number: DUNS Number/UNIQUE SAM ID: Brochures of their offered equipment/services. The anticipated North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code is 541714 Offices of All Other Miscellaneous Health Practitioners Mark if your firm is eligible for participation in one of the following small business programs. If so, please indicate the program:  [ ] yes [ ] no - Small Business (SB)   [ ] yes [ ] no - HUBZone   [ ] yes [ ] no - Small Business 8(a)   [ ] yes [ ] no - Small Disadvantaged Business (SDB)   [ ] yes [ ] no - Women-Owned (WO) Small Business  [ ] yes [ ] no - Service Disabled Veteran Owned Small Business (SDVOSB)  [ ] yes [ ] no - Veteran Owned Small Business (VOSB) [ ] yes [ ] no - Large Business   [ ] yes [ ] no - Other (please specify)    Please answer the following questions:  [ ] yes [ ] no - Does not exceed $10M; (for NAICS 621399) must be verifiable thru the System for Award Management)  [ ] yes [ ] no Is primarily engaged in the retail or wholesale trade and normally sells the type of item being supplied;   [ ] yes [ ] no Takes ownership or possession of the item(s) with its personnel, equipment or facilities in a manner consistent with industry practice (identify how this occurs); and   [ ] yes [ ] no Will supply the end item of a small business manufacturer, processor or producer made in the United States, or obtains a waiver of such requirement pursuant to paragraph (b)(5) CFR 121.406.  Note: Do not include Proprietary, classified, confidential, or sensitive information in responses.  In addition to providing the information requested above, responding companies are encouraged to include any relevant information (specifications, cut sheets, brochures, capability statement, past experience etc.) to confirm the company s ability to meet the requirements outlined in this request.   Responses to this notice are not offers and cannot be accepted by the U.S. Government to form a binding contract or agreement. This notice shall not be construed as a commitment by the Government to issue a solicitation, or ultimately award a contract, nor does it restrict the Government to a particular acquisition approach. The Government will in no way be bound to this information if any solicitation is issued. Requested Salient Characteristics/Statement of Work 1. Contract Title. Magnetic Resonance Imaging Services 2. Background. A VA funded project entitled, Immune-mediated pathogenic mechanisms of neuro-PASC in Veterans is being conducted and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is required. Among the concerns of infection by SARS-CoV-2 is the development of neuro-PASC, which typically refers to symptoms that occur four weeks or longer after the initial onset of illness. Long COVID research continues to find that neuropsychiatric impairments, including cognitive problems, depression, and anxiety are among the most common persistent symptoms (following fatigue), occurring in approximately 50%-80% of patients. This study will examine the overarching hypothesis that specific inflammatory factors and immunosuppressive cells contribute to the development and persistence of neuro-PASC. Similar contracts have been established by Dr. Hoffman and Dr. Loftis previously. OHSU s Advanced Imaging Research Center (AIRC) MRI was previously approved and utilized in Dr. Loftis s VA-funded project HCV and co-morbid alcohol use disorders: a translational investigation of antiviral therapy outcomes on CNS function. 3. Scope. Period of Performance: 1 July 2024 30 June 2025 A total of 15 individuals over a one-year period will be recruited for participation in the neuroimaging component of this research study. All study visit activities will occur at the VA Portland Health Care System or virtually, except for the neuroimaging. For the highly specialized imaging, the participants will be accompanied to the AIRC (the vendor) where participants will be evaluated with task-based assessments, volumetric measures, tractography, and functional connectivity in order to identify the anatomical and functional networks that correlate with neuro-PASC symptoms. 4. Specific Tasks. Overview: Multimodal neuroimaging techniques will be used to detect pathological and restorative changes in the brain of COVID-19 survivors, with and without symptoms of long COVID. Neuroimaging evaluations (i.e., volumetric measures, tractography, and resting state and task-based functional connectivity) will be conducted at baseline and 12 months to correlate magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) measures with symptoms of long COVID. We will assess these relationships across APOE genotypes. Participants, well characterized with respect to their neuro-PASC, will be evaluated with measures of cortical thickness and subcortical volume, diffusion-tensor imaging (DTI) and tractography, and resting-state functional connectivity. They will also participate in an n-back task. The neuroimaging protocol will take approximately 90 minutes. Assessments will allow us to correlate MRI measures with symptoms of long COVID (e.g., memory impairments, depression, post-traumatic distress, chemosensory dysfunction) and biological variables (e.g., inflammatory factors). Task 1. Anatomical images: High-resolution anatomical (T1-weighted [T1w]): One magnetically prepared rapid acquisition gradient echo (MPRAGE; 176 slices, 1 mm isovoxels, TR/TE/TI/ = 2500 ms/2.88 ms/1060 ms/8°, FOV = 256x256 mm, 2x Parallel Imaging, duration 7.3 min) will be acquired for co-registration with functional images and statistical overlay. High-resolution anatomical (T2-weighted [T2w]): One T2w image (176 slices, 1.0 mm isovoxels, TR/TE: 3200 ms/565 ms; variable flip angle; FOV 256x256 mm, 2x Parallel imaging; 6.5 min) will be acquired to create more accurate cortical surfaces and myelin maps. Task 2. rsMRI acquisition and analysis: We will use a 3T Siemens Magnetom Prisma scanner and a 32-channel phased array head coil. rsfMRI: We collect data with T2*- weighted echo-planar imaging (EPI) functional runs (60 slices, 2.4 mm thick, TR/TE/ =800 ms/30 ms/52°, matrix=128 × 128, FOV=216 mm2, PAT mode/Accel factor = GRAPPA/2, with an in-plane pixel size of 2.4 mm2) with the addition of real-time motion tracking. We will use a hypothesis driven seed region approach based on a priori regions of interest of the olfactocentric and related limbic and paralimbic regions: ventral striatum, midbrain, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, and ventromedial prefrontal cortex. Bivariate correlations between the average BOLD time series from these regions will provide connectivity estimates between nodes. To identify large-scale resting-state networks across all subjects, cleaned outputs from AROMA will undergo ICA analysis with Multivariate Exploratory Linear Optimized Decomposition into Independent Components (MELODIC). Group-average independent components will be identified. The spatial maps of these independent components will then be cross correlated with resting-state templates (Smith et al., 2009) to identify seven common networks (L/R executive function network, default mode network, salience attribution network, visual, motor and attention networks). FSL s dual regression will then be used to regress the group spatial maps for each subject to identify subject-specific spatial maps of each network. Time-courses from each scan will be imported into R (version 3.3.2) and used to generate pairwise Pearson correlations between each network for each subject. Task 3. White matter integrity: One single-shot, multiband, multi-shell scan will be acquired (81 axial slices, 1.7 mm thick, TR/TE/ = 4200 ms/89 ms/90°, FOV= 240 mm2, PAT mode/Accel factor = GRAPPA/3) consisting of seven non-diffusion weighted (b0) images interspersed throughout and 4 diffusion-weighted shells at b=500 s mm-2 (6 volumes), b=1000 s mm-2 (15 volumes), b=2000 s mm-2 (15 volumes), b=3000 s mm-2 (60 volumes). DTI processing and analysis will be performed using MRtrix software. Tractography: Following pre-processing, response functions are estimated for multiple tissues using the dhollander algorithm (dwi2response), including white matter, gray matter, and cerebrospinal fliud, and subsequently used for multi-shell multi-tissue constrained spherical deconvolution (MSMT-CSD) (dwi2fod). FA Maps: DTI estimates (FA, l1-3, V1-3, MD) will be calculated using DTIFIT. Voxelwise statistical analysis will be performed with TBSS and nonlinear registration to the FMRIB58_FA common space will be conducted. Task 4. Surface-based analysis: Anatomical image processing will be performed using Freesurfer 6.0. (Fischl, 2012). A standard recon-all pipeline will be used to parcellate and segment brain anatomy and include optimization for processing 3T data. Images will be hand-corrected for pial surface, white matter and intensity normalization errors. Subcortical volumes and cortical thickness values will be extracted following corrections using the DK atlas. These will then be adjusted to account for differences in gender and age as it related to total brain volume. Each thickness and volume will be regressed on age, gender, and estimated total intracranial volume. The resulting residuals by subject will then be added to the group mean of the feature. Task 5. N-back task: The standard version of the task is identical to that used in the Hoffman Lab (co-Investigator). The n-back task is a continuous performance task that is commonly used as an assessment in psychology and cognitive neuroscience to measure a part of working memory and working memory capacity. fMRI n-back performace will be analyzed in relation to decision-making and executive function tasks on the CANTAB, as well as APOE genotype, inflammatory factors, and other functional and structural CNS measures. 5. Performance Monitoring (if applicable). Performance will be supervised by VA Points of Contact. Performance monitoring/quality control during MRI is inherent to the process and subject scans will be determined to be of sufficient quality prior to scan completion. 6. Security Requirements. The contractor employees shall not have access to VA sensitive or computer information and will not require routine access to VA Facilities. The contractor employees shall require intermittent access only and will be escorted by VA employees while at VA Facilities. No background investigation is required. 7. Government-Furnished Equipment (GFE)/Government-Furnished Information (GFI). None. 8. Other Pertinent Information or Special Considerations. None. a. Identification of Possible Follow-on Work. None. b. Identification of Potential Conflicts of Interest (COI). None. Both institutions have robust COI programs, and those processes will be used herein. e. Inspection and Acceptance Criteria. Results from MRI scans will be analyzed with established protocols for quality and accepted in real time by the VA MRI operator. 9. Risk Control Both the VA and AIRC have clear and well-established protocols that outline procedures for patient safety and infection control. Those will be strictly followed. 10. Place of Performance. All study visit activities will occur at the VA Portland Health Care System or virtually, except for the neuroimaging. For the highly specialized imaging, the participants will be accompanied to the AIRC (the vendor) where participants will be evaluated with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and voxel-based morphometry (VBM). 11. Period of Performance. 1 July 2024 30 June 2025. 12. Delivery Schedule. Scan results will be delivered in real time during acquisition.