magnetic resonance imaging
Children’s brain development is linked to physical fitness
CHAMPAIGN, lll. — Researchers have found an association between physical fitness and the brain in 9- and 10-year-old children: Those who are more fit tend to have a bigger hippocampus and perform better on a test of memory than their less-fit pe…
Ritalin improves brain function, task performance in cocaine abusers
UPTON, NY — A brain-scanning study at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory, conducted with collaborators from Stony Brook University, reveals that an oral dose of methylphenidate, commonly known as Ritalin, improve…
Staggered radiologist work shifts improve patient care, study suggests
Implementation of staggered radiologist work shifts can expedite the communication of urgent findings and improve patient care, according to a study in the September issue of the Journal of the American College of Radiology (www.jacr.org).
Radiol…
The neural basis of the depressive self
Depression is actually defined by specific clinical symptoms such as sadness, difficulty to experience pleasure, sleep problems etc., present for at least two weeks, with impairment of psychosocial functioning. These symptoms guide the physician to …
Going live to the beating heart
“Please hold absolutely still”: This instruction is crucial for patients being examined by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). It is the only way to obtain clear images for diagnosis. Up to now, it was therefore almost impossible to image moving …
Sodium MRI gives new insights into detecting osteoarthritis, NYU researchers find
Researchers at New York University have developed an innovative way to look at the development of osteoarthritis in the knee joint — one that relies on the examination of sodium ions in cartilage. Their work, which appears in the Journal of…
Research heralds potential for early diagnosis of degenerative brain disorders
A team of American scientists claim that a new method of testing for neurological diseases could provide doctors with a rapid and non-invasively method of diagnosing degenerative disorders. The research, published in The journal of Comparative Neuro…
‘Virtual biopsy’ – A new way to look at cancer
Scientists are using new imaging technology to help them perform “virtual biopsies,” ? biological profiles of specific tumors that may help predict a patient’s response to treatment and probability of long-term survival. This whole new realm of imaging is called functional MRI (magnetic resonance imaging), a process that offers insight into a tumor’s character, not just its superficial structure.
Scientists Image Soft Tissues With New X-Ray Technique
Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory, in collaboration with researchers at Rush Medical College, have demonstrated the effectiveness of a novel x-ray imaging technology to visualize soft tissues of the human foot that are not visible with conventional x-rays. The technique, called Diffraction Enhanced Imaging (DEI), provides all of the information imparted by conventional x-rays as well as detailed information on soft tissues previously accessible only with additional scanning methods such as ultrasound or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). This study appears in the May 2003 issue of the Journal of Anatomy.
Physical Mimicry of Others Jump-starts Key Brain Activity
A child falls from his bicycle and his father winces. A bride says “I do” and the maid of honor grins from ear to ear. A mother frowns with displeasure and her infant son frowns back. UCLA neuroscientists using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) are the first to demonstrate that empathetic action, such as mirroring facial expressions, triggers far greater activity in the emotion centers of the brain than mere observation.
Dietary fat intake affects hidden stomach flab
You literally are what you eat, at least when it comes to the amount of abdominal visceral fat, Johns Hopkins researchers say. Studying the food diaries of a group of middle-age adults, they found that the more saturated fats such as butter and lard the group ate, the higher the amount of visceral fat surrounding their internal organs. By contrast, a diet of more polyunsaturated fats like vegetable oils yielded lower visceral fat.