Clinical evaluation of CAIPIRINHA: comparison against a GRAPPA standard.

Purpose: To evaluate image quality when using a CAIPIRINHA sampling pattern in comparison to a standard GRAPPA sampling pattern in patients undergoing a routine three-dimensional (3D) breathheld liver exam. CAIPIRINHA uses an optimized phase encoding sampling strategy to alter aliasing artifacts in 3D acquisitions to improve parallel imaging reconstruction.

Materials And Methods: Twenty patient volunteers were scanned using a 3D VIBE acquisition with an acceleration factor of four using a CAIPIRINHA and standard GRAPPA sampling pattern.

Simultaneous magnetic resonance angiography and perfusion (MRAP) measurement: initial application in lower extremity skeletal muscle.

Purpose: To obtain a simultaneous 3D magnetic resonance angiography and perfusion (MRAP) using a single acquisition and to demonstrate MRAP in the lower extremities. A time-resolved contrast-enhanced exam was used in MRAP to simultaneously acquire a contrast-enhanced MR angiography (MRA) and dynamic contrast-enhanced (DCE) perfusion, which currently requires separate acquisitions and thus two contrast doses. MRAP can be used to assess large and small vessels in vascular pathologies such as peripheral arterial disease.

Time-resolved MR angiography of the legs at 3 T using a low dose of gadolinium: initial experience and contrast dynamics.

Objective: This article describes our initial clinical experience with time-resolved MR angiography (MRA) of the legs using the time-resolved imaging with stochastic trajectories (TWIST) technique with a half dose of gadolinium.

Materials And Methods: Thirty-four patients underwent a TWIST examination of the legs at 3 T. Thirty-three patients also underwent a bolus-chase MRA examination in the same setting.

Intramyocellular lipid content and insulin sensitivity are increased following a short-term low-glycemic index diet and exercise intervention.

The relationship between intramyocellular (IMCL) and extramyocellular lipid (EMCL) accumulation and skeletal muscle insulin resistance is complex and dynamic. We examined the effect of a short-term (7-day) low-glycemic index (LGI) diet and aerobic exercise training intervention (EX) on IMCL and insulin sensitivity in older, insulin-resistant humans. Participants (66 ± 1 yr, BMI 33 ± 1 kg/m(2)) were randomly assigned to a parallel, controlled feeding trial [either an LGI (LGI/EX, n = 7) or high GI (HGI/EX, n = 8) eucaloric diet] combined with supervised exercise (60 min/day, 85% HR(max)).

Time-resolved and bolus-chase MR angiography of the leg: branching pattern analysis and identification of septocutaneous perforators.

Objective: The goal of this study was to compare time-resolved MR angiography (MRA) and bolus-chase MRA in the identification of peroneal artery septocutaneous perforators and for classification of the branching pattern of the arterial tree in the leg in a cohort of candidates for fibular free flap transfer operations.

Materials And Methods: Retrospective analysis was performed on imaging data from 53 legs of 27 patients (age range, 27-88 years) who underwent time-resolved MRA (FLASH; TR/TE, 2.5/1.

A vasculature-targeting regimen of preoperative docetaxel with or without bevacizumab for locally advanced breast cancer: impact on angiogenic biomarkers.

Purpose: Taxanes have effects on angiogenesis causing difficulties in separating biological effects of chemotherapy from those due to angiogenesis inhibitors. This randomized phase II trial was designed to evaluate the additional biomarker effect on angiogenesis when bevacizumab is added to docetaxel.

Experimental Design: Patients with inoperable breast cancer were randomized to either 2 cycles of preoperative docetaxel (D) 35 mg/m(2) i.

Inflammatory breast cancer as a model disease to study tumor angiogenesis: results of a phase IB trial of combination SU5416 and doxorubicin.

Purpose: We used inflammatory breast cancer (IBC) as a model disease to investigate biological changes associated with an antiangiogenesis agent, SU5416, combined with doxorubicin.

Experimental Design: Patients with stage IIIB or IV IBC were treated neoadjuvantly with the combination of SU5416 and doxorubicin for induction therapy. The dose of SU5416 (administered on days 1 and 4, every 3 weeks) and doxorubicin (administered on day 1 every 3 weeks) were escalated in cohorts of three patients starting at 110 and 60 mg/m2, respectively, for a total of five cycles leading up to mastectomy.

Model-free parameters from dynamic contrast-enhanced-MRI: sensitivity to EES volume fraction and bolus timing.

Purpose: To quantify the unknown relative sensitivities of semiquantitative measures from dynamic contrast-enhanced (DCE) MRI to variations in the volume fraction V(e) of the extravascular extracellular space (EES), and the duration of the contrast injection.

Materials And Methods: Tissue-uptake curves were simulated across various values of F, PS, V(e), and bolus timings, with and without additive noise and at different image reacquisition rates. From each, the peak of the first derivative (G(peak)), the total uptake after the rapid first phase (CE), and the IAUC were calculated and plotted against F for each experimental condition.

An augmented reality system for MR image-guided needle biopsy: initial results in a swine model.

Purpose: To evaluate an augmented reality (AR) system in combination with a 1.5-T closed-bore magnetic resonance (MR) imager as a navigation tool for needle biopsies.

Materials And Methods: The experimental protocol had institutional animal care and use committee approval.

Toward rapid high resolution in vivo intravascular MRI: evaluation of vessel wall conspicuity in a porcine model using multiple imaging protocols.

Purpose: To assess magnetic resonance (MR) pulse sequences for high resolution intravascular imaging.

Materials And Methods: Intravascular imaging of the abdominal aorta and iliac arteries was performed in vivo in a porcine model at 1.5 T using catheter-mounted micro-receive coils.

Determining and optimizing the precision of quantitative measurements of perfusion from dynamic contrast enhanced MRI.

Purpose: To examine the sensitivity of quantitative dynamic contrast enhanced MRI (DCE-MRI) perfusion maps to errors in the various source images and to determine optimal imaging parameters for reducing this sensitivity.

Materials And Methods: A detailed analysis of the precision of a DCE-MRI protocol was performed using the "propagation of errors" technique to investigate the effect of errors in the source images on errors in K(trans). Optimal parameter values and interactions between parameters were examined.

A phase I pharmacokinetic and translational study of the novel vascular targeting agent combretastatin a-4 phosphate on a single-dose intravenous schedule in patients with advanced cancer.

Combretastatin A-4 phosphate (CA4P) is a novel antitumor vascular targeting agent, the first agent of this class of compounds to enter the clinic. We performed a Phase I trial to determine the maximum-tolerated dose, safety, and pharmacokinetic profile of CA4P on a single-dose i.v.

Head size and schizophrenia.

There is a small but intriguing body of literature which suggests that head size may be reduced in patients with schizophrenia. This literature sits alongside more substantial and compelling evidence that there is a reduction in cerebral volume in schizophrenia. As an extension of earlier work, measures of extracranial head size derived from standard anthropometric approaches were assessed in 44 patients and 46 control subjects.

Increased presence of white matter hyperintensities in adolescent patients with bipolar disorder.

Several reports have noted an increase in white matter hyperintensities (WMH) on MRI scans of adult patients with bipolar disorder. We investigated whether this increase was also evident in a group of adolescent patients with bipolar disorder. The sample consisted of 15 bipolar patients, 19 patients with schizophrenia and 16 healthy comparison subjects.