Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)

We describe the design and operation of an open-access, very-low-field, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) system for in vivo hyperpolarized 3He imaging of the human lungs. This system permits the study of lung function in both horizontal and upright postures, a capability with important implications in pulmonary physiology and clinical medicine, including asthma and obesity. The imager uses a bi-planar B(0) coil design that produces an optimized 65 G (6.5 mT) magnetic field for 3He MRI at 210 kHz.

RATIONALE AND OBJECTIVES: The human lung and its functions are extremely sensitive to orientation and posture, and debate continues as to the role of gravity and the surrounding anatomy in determining lung function and heterogeneity of perfusion and ventilation. However, study of these effects is difficult.

Magnetic resonance imaging of hyperpolarized nuclei provides high image contrast with little or no background signal. To date, in vivo applications of prehyperpolarized materials have been limited by relatively short nuclear spin relaxation times. Here, we investigate silicon nanoparticles as a new type of hyperpolarized magnetic resonance imaging agent.

There are few long-term clinical and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data on patients treated with interferon-beta (IFN-beta) for relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS). The aim of this study was to provide clinical and MRI data on 68 patients with RRMS treated over a 6-year period and to investigate whether a baseline MRI predicts their long-term clinical and MRI outcome. Six MRI scans were performed monthly before treatment and a further 13 scans were performed during treatment with IFN-beta, the last of which 6 years after commencement of treatment.

PURPOSE: To evaluate the inter-rater agreement of cortical lesion detection using 7 Tesla (T) FLASH-T2 and 3T DIR sequences.

BACKGROUND: 3,4-diaminopyridine (3,4-DAP), a potassium (K+) channel blocker, improves fatigue and motor function in multiple sclerosis (MS). Although it was thought to do so by restoring conduction to demyelinated axons, recent experimental data show that aminopyridines administered at clinical doses potentiate synaptic transmission.
OBJECTIVE: To investigate motor cerebral activity with fMRI and transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) after a single oral dose of 3,4-DAP in patients with MS.

We determined whether positive ANA was related to response to rIFNss-1a in 62 relapsing-remitting MS patients. According to the presence of antinuclear antibodies (ANA) at baseline and during the first 6 months of treatment, patients were sorted in different groups. The clinical and MRI outcome during short-term (6 months) and long-term (24 months) treatment period was not statistically different between the groups. Therefore, the response to IFNbeta-1a seems not to be influenced by ANA occurrence either before or during treatment. When the analysis was extended to other autoantibodies (i.

The objectives of this study were to assess whether cortical motor reorganization in the early phase of multiple sclerosis (MS) is correlated with the clinical presentation and with specific damage to the corticospinal tract. Twenty patients with clinically isolated syndrome (CIS) and serial MR findings indicative of MS were selected. In 10 patients the CIS was hemiparesis (group H), and in 10 patients the CIS was optic neuritis (group ON). There were no significant differences in age, disease duration, total T2 lesion load (LL), and total T1 LL between group H and group ON.

The authors describe a case of right fronto-parietal micropoligyria associated with small schizencephaly clefts and the presence of a frontal open-lip schizencephaly with corpus callosum agenesis. A functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study was performed to evaluate the possible reorganization of cortical functions in a patient presenting a complex malformation pattern and to investigate which cortical areas were activated during left finger movements.

Functional MRI (fMRI) studies have shown increased activation of ipsilateral motor areas during hand movement in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS). We hypothesized that these changes could be due to disruption of transcallosal inhibitory pathways. We studied 18 patients with relapsing-remitting MS. Conventional T1- and T2-weighted images were acquired and lesion load (LL) measured. Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) was performed to estimate fractional anisotropy (FA) and mean diffusivity (MD) in the body of the corpus callosum (CC). fMRI was obtained during a right-hand motor task.