Matching Items (4)
Filtering by

Clear all filters

132964-Thumbnail Image.png
Description
In epilepsy, malformations that cause seizures often require surgery. The purpose of this research is to join forces with the Multi-Center Epilepsy Lesion Detection (MELD) project at University College London (UCL) in order to improve the process of detecting lesions in patients with drug-resistant epilepsy. This, in turn, will improve

In epilepsy, malformations that cause seizures often require surgery. The purpose of this research is to join forces with the Multi-Center Epilepsy Lesion Detection (MELD) project at University College London (UCL) in order to improve the process of detecting lesions in patients with drug-resistant epilepsy. This, in turn, will improve surgical outcomes via more structured surgical planning. It is a global effort, with more than 20 sites across 5 continents. The targeted populations for this study include patients whose epilepsy stems from Focal Cortical Dysplasia. Focal Cortical Dysplasia is an abnormality of cortical development, and causes most of the drug-resistant epilepsy. Currently, the creators of MELD have developed a set of protocols which wrap various
commands designed to streamline post-processing of MRI images. Using this partnership, the Applied Neuroscience and Technology Lab at PCH has been able to complete production of a post-processing pipeline which integrates locally sourced smoothing techniques to help identify lesions in patients with evidence of Focal Cortical Dysplasia. The end result is a system in which a patient with epilepsy may experience more successful post-surgical results due to the
combination of a lesion detection mechanism and the radiologist using their trained eye in the presurgical stages. As one of the main points of this work is the global aspect of it, Barrett thesis funding was dedicated for a trip to London in order to network with other MELD project collaborators. This was a successful trip for the project as a whole in addition to this particular thesis. The ability to troubleshoot problems with one another in a room full of subject matter
experts allowed for a high level of discussion and learning. Future work includes implementing machine learning approaches which consider all morphometry parameters simultaneously.
ContributorsHumphreys, Zachary William (Author) / Kodibagkar, Vikram (Thesis director) / Foldes, Stephen (Committee member) / Harrington Bioengineering Program (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2019-05
133009-Thumbnail Image.png
Description
Epileptic encephalopathies (EE) are genetic or environmentally-caused conditions that cause “catastrophic” damage or degradation to the sensory, cognitive, and behavioral centers of the brain. Whole-exome sequencing identified de novo heterozygous missense mutations within the DNM1 gene of five pediatric patients with epileptic encephalopathies. DNM1 encodes for the dynamin-1 protein which

Epileptic encephalopathies (EE) are genetic or environmentally-caused conditions that cause “catastrophic” damage or degradation to the sensory, cognitive, and behavioral centers of the brain. Whole-exome sequencing identified de novo heterozygous missense mutations within the DNM1 gene of five pediatric patients with epileptic encephalopathies. DNM1 encodes for the dynamin-1 protein which is involved in endocytosis and synaptic recycling, and it is a member of dynamin GTPase. The zebrafish, an alternative model system for drug discovery, was utilized to develop a novel model for dynamin-1 epileptic encephalopathy through a small molecule inhibitor. The model system mimicked human epilepsy caused by DNM1 mutations and identified potential biochemical pathways involved in the production of this phenotype. The use of microinjections of mutated DNM1 verified phenotypes and was utilized to determine safe and effective antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) for treatment of this specific EE. This zebrafish dynamin-1 epileptic encephalopathy model has potential uses for drug discovery and investigation of this rare childhood disorder.
ContributorsMills, Gabrielle Corley (Author) / Kodibagkar, Vikram (Thesis director) / Rangasamy, Sampath (Committee member) / School of Human Evolution & Social Change (Contributor) / Harrington Bioengineering Program (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2019-05
135480-Thumbnail Image.png
Description
Compressed sensing magnetic resonance spectroscopic imaging (MRSI) is a noninvasive and in vivo potential diagnostic technique for cancer imaging. This technique undersamples the distribution of specific cancer biomarkers within an MR image as well as changes in the temporal dimension and subsequently reconstructs the missing data. This technique has been

Compressed sensing magnetic resonance spectroscopic imaging (MRSI) is a noninvasive and in vivo potential diagnostic technique for cancer imaging. This technique undersamples the distribution of specific cancer biomarkers within an MR image as well as changes in the temporal dimension and subsequently reconstructs the missing data. This technique has been shown to retain a high level of fidelity even with an acceleration factor of 5. Currently there exist several different scanner types that each have their separate analytical methods in MATLAB. A graphical user interface (GUI) was created to facilitate a single computing platform for these different scanner types in order to improve the ease and efficiency with which researchers and clinicians interact with this technique. A GUI was successfully created for both prospective and retrospective MRSI data analysis. This GUI retained the original high fidelity of the reconstruction technique and gave the user the ability to load data, load reference images, display intensity maps, display spectra mosaics, generate a mask, display the mask, display kspace and save the corresponding spectra, reconstruction, and mask files. Parallelization of the reconstruction algorithm was explored but implementation was ultimately unsuccessful. Future work could consist of integrating this parallelization method, adding intensity overlay functionality and improving aesthetics.
ContributorsLammers, Luke Michael (Author) / Kodibagkar, Vikram (Thesis director) / Hu, Harry (Committee member) / Harrington Bioengineering Program (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05
161752-Thumbnail Image.png
Description
Magnetic resonance spectroscopic imaging (MRSI) is a non-invasive technique that offers a unique ability to provide the spatial distribution of relevant biochemical compounds (metabolites). The ‘spectrum’ of information provided by MRSI is used as biomarkers for the differential diagnosis of several diseases such as cancer or neurological disorders. Treatment responsive

Magnetic resonance spectroscopic imaging (MRSI) is a non-invasive technique that offers a unique ability to provide the spatial distribution of relevant biochemical compounds (metabolites). The ‘spectrum’ of information provided by MRSI is used as biomarkers for the differential diagnosis of several diseases such as cancer or neurological disorders. Treatment responsive brain tumors can appear similar to non-responsive tumors on conventional anatomical MR images, earlier in the therapy, leading to a poor prognosis for many patients. Biomarkers such as lactate are particularly of interest in the oncological studies of solid tumors to determine their energy metabolism, blood flow, and hypoxia. Despite the capability of nearly all clinical MRI scanners to perform MRSI only limited integration of MRSI into routine clinical studies has occurred to date. The major challenges affecting its true potential are the inherently long acquisition time, low signal-to-noise (SNR) of the signals, overlapping of spectral lines, or the presence of artifacts. The goal of this dissertation work is to facilitate MRSI in routine clinical studies without affecting the current patient throughput. In this work, the Compressed Sensing (CS) strategy was used to accelerate conventional Point RESolved Spectroscopy (PRESS) MRSI by sampling well below the Shannon-Nyquist limit. Two undersampling strategies, namely the pseudo-random variable density and a novel a priori method was developed and implemented on a clinical scanner. Prospectively undersampled MRSI data was acquired from patients with various brain-related concerns. Spatial-spectral post-processing and CS reconstruction pipeline was developed for multi-channel undersampled data. The fidelity of the CS-MRSI method was determined by comparing the CS reconstructed data to the fully sampled data. Statistical results showed that the a priori approach maintained high spectral fidelity compared to the fully sampled reference for an 80% reduction in scan time. Next, an improvement to the CS-MRSI reconstruction was achieved by incorporating coil sensitivity maps as support in the iterative process. Further, a CS-MRSI-based fast lactate spectroscopic imaging method was developed and implemented to achieve complete water and fat suppression for accurate spatial localization and quantification of lactate in tumors. In vitro phantoms were developed, and the sequence was tested to determine the efficacy of CS-MRSI for low SNR signals, the efficacy of the CS acceleration was determined with statistical analysis.
ContributorsBikkamane Jayadev, Nutandev (Author) / Kodibagkar, Vikram (Thesis advisor) / Chang, John (Committee member) / Robison, Ryan (Committee member) / Smith, Barbara (Committee member) / Sohn, Sung-Min (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2021