Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy Of Degenerative Brain Diseases

The proposed book will act as a guide for scientists and clinicians to the unique information that MRS can provide. It will be a comprehensive overview of clinical and pre-clinical MRS applications and potential clinical utility of MRS biomarkers in degenerative brain diseases from leading experts in the field. MRS has proven to be a powerful complementary tool to MRI for the diagnosis and monitoring of disease progression and response to treatment because it can detect changes in cell density, cell type, and biochemical composition, not just structural changes. As the population in the developed world continues to age, neuroimaging for diagnosis, prognosis, and therapy monitoring of neurodegenerative diseases becomes increasingly important and there has been a recent surge of clinical and pre-clinical applications of MRS indicating that this technique can provide robust and non-invasive biomarkers of degeneration. ​

Demonstrates how MRS offers a useful tool for the noninvasive biochemical analysis of the brain. The book covers over 70 clinical cases and more than 100 spectra that enhance skills at interpreting MRS, including minimizing errors, highlighting artifacts, and expanding the clinical usefulness of this diagnostic modality.

This volume is a practical guide to the technique and most frequent clinical applications of magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) of the brain. Using more than 500 images, the authors present the fundamentals of MRS in a straightforward fashion and show radiologists and neurologists how to recognize normal and disease processes on scans. The book presents the spectra of the most common neurological disease entities, along with the conventional images and perfusion and diffusion where appropriate. The authors thoroughly describe the pathology and key MRS features of each disease process. Each chapter ends with a quick-reference summary of the main findings.

Clinical Applications of MR Spectroscopy Edited by Suresh K. Mukherji, M.D. Magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) is a powerful diagnostic tool for a variety of brain disorders—from epilepsy and tumors to age-related degeneration and strokes. Unlike magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), which gives us a picture of anatomical and physiological conditions, MRS generates a frequency domain spectrum that provides information about biochemical and metabolic processes occurring within tissues. Clinical Applications of MR Spectroscopy presents a short, practical treatment of MRS today. Comprising contributions by leading authorities in the field, the book discusses MRS techniques used for diagnostic purposes and research, terminologies and examples drawn from clinical experience, and ways to correlate MRS results with other modalities to enhance our understanding of disease processes and the outcomes of particular treatments. Topics include: Basic principles of clinical proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy MRS in the evaluation of epilepsy Proton MRS of brain tumors Proton MRS in selected childhood disorders MRS and spectroscopic imaging for cerebrovascular disease MRS of degenerative brain disease in the elderly MRS of the head and neck Potential clinical applications of new techniques in MRS Correlation of functional brain imaging with MRS Clinical Applications of MR Spectroscopy provides 150 photographs and figures to illustrate the interpretation of MRS signals, as well as fully referenced chapters for those wishing to expand their knowledge of the underlying science. It is an essential guide to the state of the art for radiologists and neurologists using this technology to improve patient care.

Magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) is a modality available on most clinical MR scanners and readily integrated with standard MR imaging (MRI). For the brain in particular, MRS has been a powerful research tool providing additional clinically relevant information for several disease families such as brain tumors, metabolic disorders, and systemic diseases. The most widely-available MRS method, proton (1H; hydrogen) spectroscopy, is FDA approved for general use in the US and can be ordered by clinicians for patient studies if indicated. There are several books available that describe applications of MRS in adults. However, to the best of our knowledge there is currently no book available that focuses exclusively on applications in pediatrics. MR spectroscopy in the pediatric population is different from adults for two main reasons. Particularly in the newborn phase the brain undergoes biochemical maturation with dramatic changes of the "normal" biochemical fingerprint. Secondly, brain diseases in the pediatric population are different from adult disorders. For example, brain tumors, which are mostly gliomas in the adults, often originate from different cell types and are also more diverse even within the same type and grade of tumor. This diversity of diseases and its implications for MR spectroscopy has not been addressed sufficiently in the literature, we believe. The target audience for "MR Spectroscopy of Pediatric Brain Disorders" are thus both clinicians and researchers involved with pediatric brain disorders. This includes radiologists, neurologists, neurooncologists, neurosurgeons, and more broadly the neuroscience and neurobiology community. This book will provide the necessary background information to understand the basics of MR spectroscopy. This will be followed by a detailed discussion of the normal biochemical maturation which will highlight the metabolic differences between the pediatric and adult brain. Thereafter, in SECTION I individual chapters will address various pediatric brain disease families. Of particular importance for pediatrics are case studies. For that reason, SECTION II will contain a large number of case studies. This will be particularly important for clinicians who may want to see examples of MRS for various conditions. A standardized format will be used for case reports that allow the reader to quickly understand the history of each case presented and the significance of the findings. The case reports will also include information from other imaging modalities to point out any added value of MRS in addition to conventional studies and clinical information. This section is necessary because the format of providing more complete information about individual patients is not practical for the chapters in SECTION I.

This issue focuses on MR Spectroscopy (MRS) for neuroimaging. Topics include MRS for Common Dementias, Epilepsy, Metabolic Disorders, Hypoxic-isquemic Injuries, Multiple Sclerosis, Brain Infections, Pediatric Brain Tumors, Adult Brain Neoplasms.

Recent years have witnessed dramatic advances in the development and use of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) techniques that can provide quantitative measures with some degree of pathological specificity for the heterogeneous substrates of multiple sclerosis (MS). Magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) is one of the most promising of these techniques. Thanks to MRS, axonal damage is no longer considered an end-stage phenomenon typical of only the most destructive lesions and the most unfortunate cases, but rather as a major component of the MS pathology of lesions and normal-appearing white matter at all the phases of the disease. This new concept is rapidly changing our understanding of MS pathophysiology and, as a consequence, the therapeutic strategies to modify the disease course favorably. Many of the authors have pionereed the use of MRS in MS, thus contributing to the foundation of the "axonal hypothesis".

In recent decades, the use of neuroimaging techniques has resulted in outstanding progress in the diagnosis and management of neurological diseases, and this is particularly true of those diseases that affect the white matter of the brain and spinal cord. This book, written by internationally acclaimed experts, comprises a series of comprehensive and up-to-date reviews on the use of MR imaging in these major neurological conditions. The diverse available MR techniques, such as magnetization transfer MRI, diffusion-weighted MRI, MR spectroscopy, functional MRI, cell-specific MRI, perfusion MRI, and microscopic imaging with ultra-high field MRI, offer an extraordinarily powerful means of gaining fundamental in vivo insights into disease processes. The strengths and weaknesses of all these techniques in the study of multiple sclerosis and other relevant diseases are extensively considered. After an introductory section on neuroimaging technology, subsequent sections address disorders of myelination, demyelinating diseases, immune-mediated disorders, and white matter disorders related to aging and other conditions. This book provides a valuable summary of the state of the art in the field, and defines important areas for future research.