Radiology
Summary of Research
My current NIH funded research activities are focused on perinatal brain injury. Using multiple MR imaging modalities, including dynamic susceptibility contrast perfusion, arterial spin labeling perfusion, diffusion tensor imaging, MR spectroscopy and T1 quantitation, the physiological signature of normal and abnormal brain is being evaluated. Diffusion tensor imaging and arterial spin labeling techniques are being optimized for the neonatal population. Functional imaging methods using both BOLD fMRI and near infrared spectroscopy are being developed to further probe the viability of the injured brain and to attempt to identify imaging markers of synaptogenesis. Through collaborations with Verne Caviness, MD; Nikos Makris, PhD; and David Kennedy, PhD, at the Center for Morphometric Analysis, methods to quantify the rapid growth of the brain from the perinatal period to 5 year of age are being developed to determine normal growth and assess the impact of perinatal brain injury on future anatomical brain development. An instructor, Rudolph Pienaar, PhD, is working under my direction and collaborating with Bruce Fischl, PhD, and Polina Golland, PhD, to develop novel measure of cortical folding in three dimensions. Through collaborations with Maria Angela Fraceschini, PhD, and the Optical Imaging Lab at the Martinos Center directed by David Boas, PhD, use of frequency domain near infrared spectroscopy in the evaluation of neonatal brain injury is being explored.
Using novel coils and diffusion tensor imaging at 3T, I have been imaging patients with epilepsy and improving the detection of focal lesions in patients with partial epilepsies. Our recent publication indicates that almost fifty percent of the time our interpretations with high quality data add additional relevant clinical information. We have also been collaborating with Elizabeth Thiele, MD, Director of the Tuberous Sclerosis Comprehensive Clinic, to study a subgroup of patients with Tuberous Sclerosis Complex. We hope to confirm our preliminary results that diffusion directionality, detected with diffusion tensor imaging, is related cognitive function. To complement these clinical studies, we have been performing high-resolution structural and diffusion imaging of pathological specimens of cortical dysplasias in collaboration with Alex DeCrespigny, PhD, Helen D’Arceuil, PhD, and Van Wedeen, MD, PhD, at the Martinos Center as well as Matthew Frosch, MD, and Anat Stemmer-Rachamimov, MD, in pathology.
Contact Information
Phone: 617-724-4207
Fax: 617-726-8360
E-mail: ellen@nmr.mgh.harvard.edu
