Medical Imaging at the Cellular Level
Magnetic resonance medical imaging, built on the principles of nuclear magnetic resonance, generates an image of the NMR signal in a thin slice through the human body. Photographs taken in sequence build a three dimensional image of anatomical structures. Magnetic resonance medical imaging is the preferred analytical tool for examining the brain and spinal cord as well as evaluating soft tissue.
Molecular magnetic resonance imaging allows for the visualization and analysis of cells and molecules. At this level, it's possible to stalk and assess cellular functions that can provide never-before-available medical imaging insight into the disease process. For instance, scientists have long known about the connection between inflammation and heart disease. Still, the medical imaging tools to measure inflammation related to the heart have not been available at a adequate enough level of measurement to entirely explore the correlation.
The January 16, 2007 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences published a study by researchers at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York that uses molecular MRI medical imaging to receive insight into the correlation between inflammation and heart disease. Researchers made a synthetic material, gadolinium�diethyltriaminepentaacetic acid (DTPA), that's able to catch and connect to white blood cells imbedded in arterial walls. The DPTA allowed mMRI medical imaging visualization of the white blood cells, they could actually count the number of cells and assess how stable they are. Researchers discovered a positive correlation between the number of white cells stuck in the arterial walls and the likelihood of later heart attack. The initial research was done on mice.
Additional research will be performed on bigger mammals and if it is successful, the research will move to human clinical trials. The discovery of more effective and more exact medical imaging "tagging" media is the most popular new area of research in molecular magnetic resonance medical imaging. Lately, researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the University of California at Berkeley have reported on research concerning a modern medical imaging method for molecular magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) that can detect molecules 10,000 times lower concentrations than conventional MRI techniques. The method, called HYPER-CEST, for hyperpolarized xenon chemical exchange saturation transfer, increases the atom's MRI signal by hyperpolarizing them with laser light, then places the atoms into a nanoscale cage biosensor that's created specific for a individual protein target. This medical imaging method is expected to be very useful in identifying cancer cells at the most primitive stages of cancer presence.
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About the Author
Author Jesse Fisher enjoys writing articles for his customers which includes Transamerican Medical, a company that buys and sells Philips Medical equipment and parts. See also Medical Imaging News.
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