Biomedical Engineering and Bioengineering Commons^™

Imaging The Vasculature With Susceptibility Weighted Imaging: Applications And Analysis, Samuel Barnes

Wayne State University Dissertations

Modern magnetic resonance imaging sequences allow detailed non-invasive imaging of both the arteries and veins. This work is divided into four sections that examine different applications and analysis of these sequences.

Susceptibility weighted imaging (SWI) typically generates excellent negative venous contrast. Techniques to generate positive arterial contrast in SWI images without degrading the venous contrast with a single echo are examined. By using high isotropic resolution and high readout bandwidth flow losses can be minimized (generating good arterial contrast) even at the long echo times required for good venous contrast. A downsampling filter is then used to restore lost venous …

Raman Spectroscopic Modeling Of T- Lymphocyte Activation And Detection Of Acute Renal Allograft Rejection, Kristian L. Brown

Wayne State University Dissertations

ABSTRACT

RAMAN SPECTROSCOPIC MODELING OF T-LYMPHOCYTE ACTIVATION AND DETECTION OF ACUTE RENAL ALLOGRAFT REJECTION

By

KRISTIAN L. BROWN

2010

Advisor: Gregory Auner, PhD

Major: Biomedical Engineering

Degree: Doctor of Philosophy

Despite the advances made in the area of kidney transplantation, the disparity between the demand and available donated organs remains a dominant and unresolved issue. Given the paucity of available renal allografts the preservation of existing grafts is vital. One factor that has negatively impacted renal allograft survival is acute rejection (AR). Traditionally, kidney transplant centers have used elevations in serum creatinine as a screening tool for detecting AR. However, …

Identification Of Neuroblastoma And Its Prognostic Markers Using Raman Spectroscopy, Rachel Kast

Wayne State University Dissertations

Introduction: Neuroblastoma is the most common cancer of infancy. It is one of several peripheral nervous system tumors, including ganglioneuroma, peripheral nerve sheath tumor, and pheochromocytoma. It is commonly situated on the adrenal gland. It displays similar histology to other small round blue cell tumors, including non-Hodgkin lymphoma, rhabdomyosarcoma, and Ewing sarcoma. One method of judging neuroblastoma aggressiveness uses tumor histology factors, including mitosis-karyorrhexis index, Schwannian stromal development, degree of differentiation, and patient age. Tumor aggressiveness can also be judged based on the amplification of certain genes, including MYCN. Raman spectroscopy is a physics-based method which identifies the biochemical …

Quantification Of Vascular Parametric Indices Using Dynamic Contrast-Enhanced Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Areen Khaled Al.Bashir

Wayne State University Dissertations

Dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (DCE-MRI) is a non-invasive method used to evaluate the biological activity in early clinical trials of novel drugs targeting the tumor vasculature using gadolinium-DTPA (Gd) as a contrast agent. However, it has some limitations, such as reproducibility, data acquisition times, the presence of noise, extracting contrast concentration, estimating T1 relaxation and estimating pharmacokinetic parameters.

In this work, a new approach to used fixed T1(0) which provides more reproducible DCE results has been introduced. Using this new algorithm to quantify the vascular changes in DCE-MRI, a pre-clinical renal cell carcinoma (RCC) tumor model was used to …

Application Of Magnetic Resonance Imaging To Understanding The Pathogenesis Of The X-Linked Leukodystrophy Pelizaeus-Merzbacher Disease, Jeremy Jerome Laukka

Wayne State University Dissertations

Myelin is a multilamellar membrane structure surrounding axons in both the CNS and PNS that facilitates nerve conduction. In the CNS, myelin is synthesized by oligodendrocytes, while in the PNS, myelin is synthesized by Schwann cells. In the CNS, Proteolipid protein 1 (PLP1), an integral membrane protein, is the major protein component of myelin, constituting ~50% of myelin protein. Mutations of the PLP1 gene in man cause a spectrum of neurological disease, ranging from the severe Pelizaeus-Merzbacher disease (PMD), that typically begins during infancy with nystagmus, seizures and hypotonia and evolves into spastic quadriparesis, cognitive impairment and ataxia, to ¡¥pure¡¦ …