The Johns Hopkins University

Kennedy Krieger Institute, Inc.

Guanshu Liu

Michael T McMahon

Peter C Van Zijl

Kannie Wai Yan Chan

Dmitri Artemov

Yoshinori Kato

Peter C M Van Zijl

Assaf A Gilad

Yuguo Li

Michael C Mcmahon

A method for magnetic resonance (MR) imaging or spectroscopy on a MR scanner to detect tissue physiological parameters in one or more tissue areas in a human or non-human subject includes administering to the subject a contrast enhancing physiologically tolerable amount of a sugar that is non-labeled, subjecting the subject to an MR procedure capable of generating MR signals encoding at least one tissue area in the subject in which the sugar either passes or is taken up, detecting a temporal variation in the MR signals in the at least one tissue area after the administering the sugar, determining at least one tissue-related parameter from the temporal variation, and ascertaining whether the at least one tissue-related parameter is abnormal.

Use of non-labeled sugars and detection by MRI for assessing tissue perfusion and metabolism

A method of assessing tissue vascular permeability for nanotherapeutics using non-labeled dextran can include: receiving a non-labeled, physiologically-tolerable dextran solution by a subject; acquiring a plurality of magnetic resonance images of a distribution of the dextran solution within at least one region of interest of the subject for a corresponding plurality of times; and assessing a tissue vascular permeability of the at least one region of interest to dextran particles in the dextran solution based on differences between the plurality of magnetic resonance images, wherein the dextran solution is a substantially mono-disperse solution of dextran particles of one size.

Methods and systems of assessing tissue vascular permeability using non-labeled dextran

An embodiment in accordance with the present invention provides a method of non-invasively detecting and imaging temperature or temperature changes by assessing the temperature induced shifts in the saturation spectrum of water using MRI, namely saturation shift referencing. This procedure includes the MRI procedures to assess water saturation spectrum and the data processing steps to determine the temperature induced shifts of water resonance frequency and consequently to estimate the temperature change. This procedure also includes the procedure of assessing fat saturation spectrum and estimating fat resonance frequency. This method can be used as a clinical procedure for temperature mapping in multiple applications, especially where a significant amount of fat is present. One application is to monitor the temperature of the targeted tumor and its surrounding tissues during the procedure of hyperthermia. Such local hyperthermia can be applied, using high-intensity focus-ultrasound for deep-seated tissues or heating supplies for superficial tissues.

Non-invasive temperature mapping using temperature-responsive water saturation shift referencing (T-WASSR) MRI

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Baltimore, MD, United States of America

Guanshu Liu