Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Exploring The Structural And Functional Effects Of Pediatric Hydrocephalus On The Hippocampus, Lili Meng

Undergraduate Student Research Internships Conference

Hydrocephalus is one of the most common pediatric neurological problems that requires brain surgery in children. Pediatric hydrocephalus is characterized as an abnormal cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) buildup in the brain’s ventricles due to ineffective CSF reabsorption. When this fluid builds up in these cavities, it increases intracranial pressure and has a direct mass effect on the surrounding brain tissue and structures. Ultimately, various functions are affected including—but not limited to—vision, learning, memory, motor control, and hearing. Despite current literature suggesting that hydrocephalus may be associated with reduced hippocampal volume among rats and human adults, findings remain limited in the human …

The Use Of The 129xe Mri Ventilatory Adc Approach For The Evaluation Of Emphysema Progression, Keeirah Raguram

Undergraduate Student Research Internships Conference

Hyperpolarized gas pulmonary MRI provides the identification of biomarkers of various obstructive lung diseases such as emphysema. However, emphysema progression is able to cause increasing unventilated lung areas which likely excludes the estimates of the largest apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC). As such, longitudinal observation of the emphysema progression using hyperpolarized gas MRI-based ADC can be problematic, masking the severity of emphysema. The ventilatory ADC (vADC) method, which is the combination of static-ventilation (SV) and ADC measurements, adapted for ¹²⁹Xe MRI should aid to provide an accurate assessment of the emphysema-progression. Moreover, the SV measurements providing the gas-distribution should remain …

Development Of A Low Field Mri-Based Approach For Observation Of Water Penetration Into Clay: Preliminary Results, Shivam Gupta

Undergraduate Student Research Internships Conference

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) are considered one of the most efficient and non-invasive methods of observing water content in permeable substances. MRI can visualize and quantify the movement of water in real time. In this study, MRI was used to observe the water penetration through clay. Furthermore, MRI can acquire three-dimensional data due to its radio-frequency signals from any orientation. The contrast of the images produced by MRI is a display of the fluid concentration. As such, any change in the contrast intensity is interpreted as a regional change in the concentration of fluid. This report summarizes the preliminary results …

Simulating 129-Xe Hyperpolarization, Jacob F. Abiad

Undergraduate Student Research Internships Conference

Hyperpolarized 129-Xe is an important resource in many fields of medical physics and MRI research. The physics of the efficient production of hyperpolarized 129-Xe is therefore equally worth investigation. The main process of hyperpolarizing 129-Xe is Spin Exchange Optical Pumping (SEOP) and is dependent on several physical factors that can be difficult to constantly change in a lab setting. Physical modelling of 129-Xe hyperpolarization allows for the more efficient testing of hyperpolarization physics in a wide array of experimental setups to better determine the optimal values for hyperpolarization. This research project attempted to create a working model for 129-Xe hyperpolarization …

Comparing Semi-Automated Segmentation Of Traditional-Resolution And High-Resolution Hyperpolarized 129xe Mri On Covid-19 Survivors, Tingting Wu

Undergraduate Student Research Internships Conference

Hyperpolarized gas MRI using inert gases like Xe is a valuable tool in visualizing lung ventilation in patients, and can be used as a longitudinal monitoring tool for patients with lung diseases. However, use of this method requires segmentation and quantification of parameters such as ventilation defect percentage (VDP), which is often very subjective depending on the observer. This study aimed to determine the accuracy and consistency of VDP calculation using the same MRI scans from COVID-19 patients, but with high resolution and low (traditional) resolution versions. Using a MATLAB script developed previously, it was found that in general, using …

Towards Standardized Assessment Of Paraspinal Muscle Using Mri, Hamza Mirza

Undergraduate Student Research Internships Conference

• Common methodological variations in paraspinal muscle (PSM) measurement

significantly affect cross-sectional area and fat percentage measurements.

• The lack of standardization of PSM measurements complicates

comparisons of findings between studies and prevents pooling of

data for meta-analyses.

• Standardization in PSM measurements is needed to move the field forward