Magnetic Resonance Imaging Research

The IGE 1.5T CVi/NVi MRI Research Scanner, funded by the Scottish Higher Education Funding Council and the University of Aberdeen was installed in November 2000. The scanner is devoted mainly to clinical research and this is organised into three main themes heart, brain and cancer.

Heart imaging

Ischaemic heart disease is one of the leading causes of death in the west. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has the unique ability to accurately quantify the anatomy and function of the cardiovascular system. Myocardial perfusion is usually identified using nuclear medicine techniques, however with the advent of ultrafast imaging techniques it is now also possible to assess heart blood supply without the use of radiopharmaceuticals. We aim to integrate the assessment of heart motion and blood supply in one examination.

Brain Imaging

The Aberdeen 1921 Birth Cohort is a unique group of elderly subjects who had intelligence testing at the age of eleven. We are studying the relationship of brain white matter abnormalities and brain volume with current cognitive ability, vascular and genetic risk factors.
Functional MRI (fMRI) relies on detection of a change in signal due to an increase in oxygen delivery to an active area of brain. Normal subjects and patients are imaged while performing a task, such as moving a finger or looking at an image on a screen, and images produced showing the areas of brain active during that particular task. We are using fMRI to study autism and early Alzheimer's disease.
Stroke is a common and serious disease in Scotland and is most often caused by cerebral infarction. MRI is able to demonstrate the infarcted area of brain with diffusion weighted imaging (DWI) as soon as the stroke has occurred. Using an injection of contrast, perfusion imaging can also show areas of brain which have reduced blood supply but may recover if blood supply is restored. The pharmaceutical industry are currently evaluating several drugs for use in acute cerebral infarction and we are taking part in two such commercially funded multicentre studies.

Cancer Imaging

Contrast enhanced MRI is a sensitive technique for detection of breast cancer. Women at high risk of breast cancer, either because of previous radiotherapy or family history, are being studied in trials of MRI as a screening technique.MRI is being compared with positron emission tomography (PET) in the diagnosis, staging and assessment of response to chemotherapy of breast cancer. It is thought that MRI can assess the vascularity of the tumour and could be used to test new drugs being developed to treat breast cancer. MRI of the axilla has also been investigated in this centre as a noninvasive alternative to surgical staging.

MRI research funding is from a wide variety of sources including the MRC, GUHT Endowments, CSO, EPSRC and Chest Heart and Stroke, Scotland.

If you want to do a research project involving MRI, please complete this proforma and return to the department.

Research opportunities - contact f.j.gilbert@abdn.ac.uk