The core facilities and objectives for functional imaging/image analysis are described. The use of computerized image processing techniques for the extraction of clinically important diagnostic information and the enhancement of medical digital medical digital medical images is becoming increasingly more important. A major problem in medical imaging is the inability to adequately separate interfering physoligical process or anatomical features from the physioligical process or antomical structure under investigation. We have developed and reported a new linear filter which has the unique ability to segment a feature of interest from an interfere feature in a sequence of images of the same anatomical site, even when the gray levels of the pixels representing the interfering process vary through the sequence of images. We call this technique """"""""eigneimage filtering"""""""". The goal of this core is to continue the development and investigation of this filtering techniques to include multiple interfering process and its application of Magnetic Resonance Imaging of acute stroke in humans and experiementally induced ischemia in animals. The applications to Magnetic Resonance images will include scene segmentation with emphasis on feature selection. A specific application will be the development of volume calculations from magnetic resonance images in which partial volume effects will be taken into account. A second objective is to develop a basic understanding of flow incardiac synchronized fast imaging (CINE) with the eventual application to the study of cerbrospinal fluid (CSF) motion in humans. Additional pre-and post proccessing of these CINE images rebuilt in phase images which potentally allow direct quantitation of flow and/or motion. With the potential for noninvasive quantitation of CSF motion and pressure, CINE-GRASS imaging many provide a unique tool for the study of the relationship between local pressure differentials and hemodynamic parameters in stroke.
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