Current Medical Imaging - Volume 3, Issue 2, 2007

The last quarter century has witnessed the introduction of a variety of powerful techniques that have allowed visualization of organ structure and function with exquisite detail. This in turn has brought about a true revolution in the day-to-day practice of medicine. There are six articles in this issue, related to the MRI for cartilage and disc, oncology, brain function and dementia, the MR spectroscopy for breast and ovary cancer Read More

The aim of this review is to present the different stages, from geometrical to mechanical data, in the development of sensitive and non-invasive MRI techniques for describing alterations in material properties of cartilage and intervertebral disc tissue with disease. The first section summarizes some MRI techniques used to quantify the geometrical changes in cartilage and intervertebral disc tissue that appears with diurnal activi Read More

Dynamic contrast enhanced MRI (DCE-MRI) enables the quantitative assessment of tumor status and has found application in both pre-clinical tumor models as well as clinical oncology. DCE-MRI requires the serial acquisition of images before and after the injection of a paramagnetic contrast agent so that the variation of MR signal intensity with time can be recorded for each image voxel. As the agent enters into a tis Read More

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) has been widely used to evaluate the brain's response to an extensive variety and number of different tasks; however, because many of these paradigms are complex, they stimulate a broad neural network encompassing several brain regions. Therefore, it remains unclear which brain region is relevant to the principal cognitive/behavioral function that is being studied, a Read More

The frontal variant of frontotemporal dementia (fvFTD) is clinically characterized by a disruption of the social behaviour. Frontotemporal decrease of activity on functional imaging is an independent marker of the disease. Principal component analysis of cerebral functional images reveals one ensemble comprising both frontal lobes, and two lateralized clusters comprising temporal and subcallosal frontal regions. Executive dysf Read More

Elevated contents of choline phospholipid metabolites are typically detected by nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) in human and animal tumors. An increase in the intensity of the 1H-MRS profile of total cholinecontaining compounds (tCho, 3.2 ppm) is today considered as a common feature in different types of cancer, beyond their otherwise wide phenotypic variability. This finding fostered investigations on t Read More

Early detection and treatment of cerebral ischemia to prevent further neurological damage in patients with severe brain injuries, such as in trauma and stroke patients, is one of the most important issues in Neurocritical Care. Our own clinical experiences in treatment of patients with severe ischemic stroke and subarachnoid hemorrhage have shown that the available methods to monitor cerebral hemodynamics and oxygena Read More