Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) News and Research

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Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) uses a large magnet and radio waves to look at organs and structures inside your body. Health care professionals use MRI scans to diagnose a variety of conditions, from torn ligaments to tumors. MRIs are very useful for examining the brain and spinal cord. Also called: Magnetic resonance imaging, NMR, Nuclear magnetic resonance.

New clinical research and imaging centre for Bristol

The University and United Bristol Healthcare Trust (UBHT) are joining forces to establish a new state-of-the-art Clinical Research and Imaging Centre (CRIC) at St Michael's Hospital on St Michael's Hill

21 May 2008

Sleep deprived brain not to be trusted

Scientists are warning that sleep derivation affects how well the brain performs - they say any reliance on a sleep deprived-brain to perform well is potentially dangerous

21 May 2008

Nanoworms target tumors

By linking strings of spherical iron oxide nanoparticles and coating the resulting construct with a biocompatible polymer, a multi-institutional research team has created "nanoworms" that can better target tumors and produce stronger magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) signals than their component nanoparticles. The nanoworms also appear to be a promising vehicle for carrying anticancer drugs into tumors. The researchers published their work in the journal Advanced Materials.

20 May 2008

Dendrimers improve imaging with magnetic nanoparticles

Dendrimers are spherical polymer nanoparticles that have shown promise as targeted anticancer drug delivery vehicles. Iron oxide nanoparticles have already demonstrated the ability to image tumors and metastatic lesions.

20 May 2008

Drug therapy for phenylketonuria reverses heart damage

A pricy drug used to treat a rare but well-known genetic disorder may hold wider promise as a treatment for millions of Americans with potentially lethal enlarged hearts, due mainly to high blood pressure, a study from Johns Hopkins shows.

13 May 2008

Supplemental breast ultrasound boosts cancer detection, radiologist reports in national study

Among women at high-risk of developing breast cancer, breast ultrasound combined with mammography may detect more cancers than mammography alone, according to results of a multicenter trial that included UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers.

13 May 2008

New MRI technique detects subtle but serious brain injury

A new technique for analyzing magnetic resonance imaging data, developed by researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center, can reveal serious brain injury missed by current tests and help predict a patient's degree of recovery.

12 May 2008

Nanoworms developed to target tumors

Scientists at UC San Diego, UC Santa Barbara and MIT have developed nanometer-sized "nanoworms" that can cruise through the bloodstream without significant interference from the body's immune defense system and-like tiny anti-cancer missiles-home in on tumors.

7 May 2008

Gut hormone makes food appear more desirable

A gut hormone that causes people to eat more does so by making food appear more desirable, suggests a new report in the May issue of Cell Metabolism, a publication of Cell Press. In a brain imaging study of individuals, the researchers found that reward centers respond more strongly to pictures of food in subjects who had received an infusion of the hormone known as ghrelin.

6 May 2008

Alcohol affects threat-detecting brain circuits

New brain imaging research published this week shows that, after consuming alcohol, social drinkers had decreased sensitivity in brain regions involved in detecting threats, and increased activity in brain regions involved in reward.

29 Apr 2008

Effectiveness of decompression surgery in patients with cervical spinal cord injuries

Every year, nearly 12,000 individuals in the United States and Canada, mostly young adults, sustain a spinal cord injury (SCI). According to the Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention (CDC), SCI costs an estimated $9.7 billion each year in the United States alone.

29 Apr 2008

Scientists discover 4th major set of common genetic variants linked to risk of estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer

Scientists from deCODE genetics report the discovery of two common single-letter variants (SNPs) on chromosome 5 of the human genome that are associated with risk of estrogen receptor-positive (ER+) breast cancer.

27 Apr 2008

New insights into how the brain processes social, economic reward

Researchers have mapped the brain regions that process social standing and money rewards, yielding new insights that they said will aid understanding of the basis of social behaviors.

23 Apr 2008

Functional magnetic resonance imaging reveals brain circuitry associated with social status

Human imaging studies have for the first time identified brain circuitry associated with social status, according to researchers at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) of the National Institutes of Health.

23 Apr 2008

Neuroimaging helps improve quality of life for brain tumor patients

A new neuroimaging study at the Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital at McGill University aims to ensure the highest quality of life for patients by assessing their cognitive skills before, during, and after brain tumour surgery. This is done by mapping the important functional brain areas surrounding the tumour in order to decrease the risks during surgery.

21 Apr 2008

Iron nanoparticles spot tumor spread in patients with kidney cancer

Iron nanoparticles designed to collect in lymph nodes containing metastatic cancer cells have proven that they can help physicians detect metastatic spread of prostate cancer.

18 Apr 2008

New insights on early Parkinson's provided by advanced MRI

Parkinson's disease is a degenerative disorder of the brain affecting movement, speech, mood, behavior, thinking and sensation for which there is no known cause or cure.

17 Apr 2008

Measurement technology to investigate neurovascular coupling

Every two minutes in Germany, one person suffers a stroke. About one third of the affected do not survive the sudden lack of blood in the brain, many others are left with serious disabilities.

17 Apr 2008

Impairments in language development can be detected in infants as young as 3 months

Uncover how the brains of infants distinguish differences in sounds and it may become possible to correct language problems even before children start to speak, sparing them the difficulties that come from struggling with language.

11 Apr 2008

Ibuprofen and acetaminophen shown to increase muscle mass and muscle strength

Taking daily recommended dosages of ibuprofen and acetaminophen caused a substantially greater increase over placebo in the amount of quadriceps muscle mass and muscle strength gained during three months of regular weight lifting, in a study by physiologists at the Human Performance Laboratory, Ball State University.

7 Apr 2008