We do MRS research on both human and animal systems at UAMS. We have
access to three clinical GE Signa 1.5T systems. The animal system
is a GE Omega CSI 4.7T instrument that was upgraded recently with an
Apollo Tecmag console. One clinical system and the Apollo system
have multinuclear capability, which means that we can look at nuclei other
than protons.
MRS Research at UAMS includes the following projects:
31P of Breast Cancer
The purpose of this project is to combine phosphorus (31P) NMR
with conventional contrast-enhanced breast MRI to improve the specificity
of the breast MR exam. Contrast-enhanced MRI of the breast can
indicate abnormalities in the breast tissue, but many times those
abnormalities are benign. By adding the data from the phosphorus
metabolites in the tissue, we hope to be able to better distinguish the
malignant from the benign lesions. This work is supported by the
Arkansas Breast Cancer Research Program.
ANN analysis of 1H MRS of brain lesions
Proton (1H) MRS of brain lesions has demonstrated some usefulness in
distinguishing cancers from infectious processes, but it has had limited
success in differentiating types of cancers or in distinguishing cancer
from other processes such as multiple sclerosis. The purpose of
this project is to analyze clinical data collected during routine MRS
exams using a distributed artificial neural network (ANN) developed at
NCTR. We expect that the ANN will be able to “read” the spectral
data and provide a more specific description of the pathology.
PTSD study
A detailed description of the
post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) study is included in the current
research topics on this website.
Effects of antipsychotics
Antipsychotic medications are used in the treatment of schizophrenia, but
their mechanism of action is not well understood. Several studies
have indicated that the concentrations of NAA, Cr, and Cho change both in
schizophrenia and with treatment. However, it is very difficult to
separate the effects of the medication from the effects of the
disease. In this study, Dr. Lindquist and Dr. Komoroski are attempting
to determine the effects of several antipsychotics by dosing normal rats and
measuring the changes in the concentrations of NAA, Cr, and Cho over
time.
Quality Assessment for Routine Clinical MRS
This Microsoft PowerPoint presentation
outlines our quality control protocol for quickly detecting and correcting
scanner problems to ensure the quality of clinical spectroscopy exams.
At the 2004 ASNR meeting, Diana Lindquist, PhD, presented the protocol that
we developed and implemented.
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