NMR: Our NMR imaging research is developing along eleven main lines: 1) study of patients with spinal cord pathology, particularly arteriovenous malformations (AVM); 2) recognition of artifactual linear regions of abnormal signal intensity along the length of the spinal cord; 3) assessment of pulsatile CSF flow using longitudinal imaging; 4) studies of the """"""""mobile"""""""" (normal) and """"""""fixed"""""""" (pathologic) spinal cord; 5) continuing the in vivo and in vitro investigation of extravasated intracranial blood; 6) analysis of the signal intensity from critical areas (basal ganglia) in patients affected by a variety of movement disorders; 7) trying to learn more about the NMR signal of various abnormal tissues; 8) comparing clinical MRI imaging results with those of CT and particularly PET; 9) Analysis of iron accumulation in the basal ganglia of normal primates of various ages as well as in Parkinsonian (MPTP) animals; 10) MRI of MPTP induced lesions in the basal ganglia of primates; 11) animal CNS imaging and spectroscopy with experimental, small bore devices (2.0 and 4.7 Tesla). Finally, we have initiated A) investigation of NMR spectroscopy (proton) in patients with brain tumors; B) cine-MRI applications to the assessment of patients with syringomyelia and other cord cavities; C) MR angiography (flow based) in cord AVMS; and D) comparison of diffusion (Intra-Voxel Incoherent Motion Analysis) with PET in brain tumors. CT: Ongoing research studies of tumoral, degenerative, demyelinating and atrophic processes of the brain, plus hydrocephalus, brain edema, post- radiation necrosis and epilepsy.
