Monday, August 31, 2009

Spectrum of Metabolites






Whole1 H MR spectrum of human brain tissue obtained using a spin-echo sequence (TE = 30 ms, TR = 5000 ms, VOI = 28 ml, 3 T). In the region of aliphatic protons metabolite signals with concentrations higher than 1 mM are well visible and are positioned above broad signal of macromolecules. The water signal is suppressed, nevertheless, the range of approximately 4.3–5.1 ppm is influenced by many artifacts and cannot be used for the inspection of the spectrum. The aromatic part of the spectrum contains signals of compounds with very low concentrations (in normal brains) such as phenylalanine, histidines, histamines, etc.



Sunday, August 30, 2009

Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy


Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (MRS) is the medical name for NMR Spectroscopy as it applies to medicine.  It is able to detect the biochemical changes that accompany specific diseases.  For the coming posts, the following aspects of MRS that are less frequently discussed but are vital to the production of quality invivo MR spectra will be presented:
  1. Spectrum of metabolites
  2. Chemical shift (localization) artefacts
  3. Lipid contamination
  4. Spectral quality & artefacts
  5. Quality assurance for clinical MRS


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    Saturday, August 29, 2009

    Understanding MRI

    Introduction by Dr Alice Roberts. Medical Research Council. CREDITS: GSK Clinical Imaging Centre, Hammersmith, London. University of Nottingham. Nobel footage courtesy of the BBC.




    The following videos provide information about what an MRI is and how it is performed. The videos explain the procedure and provide details about what to expect.










    Welcome to my MRI Blog

    ......................................................................................................

    I started my career as a technologist in medical imaging in early 80's and have evidenced incredible changes in the field of medical imaging technology throughout these years in Hong Kong. My initial contact with Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) dated back to 1995 when I set up the first MRI system in one of the major hospitals in Hong Kong. In 2000, I set off a new MRI service in another local regional hospital. As part of the continuing professional education, I attained my MSc with distinction in Medical Science (MRI) in 2004.

    I love learning and transferring knowledge, so I decided to create this blog to share my MRI experience with those interested. I do hope that my writings can contribute in a small way to the MRI community by helping the newcomers to demystify the seemingly intriguing but complicated imaging technology.

    Throughout this blog, assorted topics, mostly relating to the clinical applications of MRI will be covered. You will be directed to other websites for the relevant MRI physics through hyperlinks where appropriate. The materials posted will mainly be in keynote presentation format and are self-explanatory. You may click on any framed block of text or image to enlarge if you find the font size or images too small to read. If the MRI blog fails to provide you with the information you are looking for, or if you need further explanations on the entries posted, drop me a note and I'll try my best to help and elaborate.

    For now, I would like to thank you for dropping by; and I hope that you will enjoy your time reading here. I appreciate any suggestions for the improvement of the blog. So please do leave your comments while you're here. Questions on MRI are also welcome.

    Cheers
    limpeter