Objectives: To establish a slowly progressive, reproducible rat model of disc degeneration and investigate the relationship between MRI and histology in the long-term progression of disc degeneration. Materials and methods: The intervertebral discs of caudal spine in rats were punctured laterally, using 20-gauge sterile needles, 5 mm depth from the skin to the middle of the appropriate disc. Th...

INTRODUCTION High-resolution MRI characterizations of diffusion anisotropy in formaldehyde-fixed autopsy tissue samples may better characterize cytoarchitecture in normal and injured human nervous tissue than in vivo samples. Unfortunately, logistics and patient family needs dictate that autopsy tissues are usually obtained following a 4+ hour postmortem interval (PMI). The stigmata of PMI can ...

In vitro studies were initiated to determine the suitability of murine and rat macrophages as delivery vehicles for gold nanoshells in the treatment of gliomas. Visualization of macrophage accumulation in and around gliomas may be accomplished using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPIO). The optimal loading of both murine and rat macrophages with...

Neonatal necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) is a poorly understood life-threatening illness afflicting premature infants. Research is hampered by the absence of a suitable method to monitor disease progression noninvasively. The primary goal of this research was to test in vivo MRI methods for the noninvasive early detection and staging of inflammation in the ileum of an infant rat model of NEC. N...

PURPOSE To compare basal retinal and cerebral blood flow (BF) values using continuous arterial spin labeling (CASL) MRI and fluorescent microspheres. MATERIALS AND METHODS A total of 41 animals were used. BF was measured using an established microsphere technique (a mixture of 2.5 million 8 μm green and 0.5 million 10 μm blue fluorescent microspheres) and CASL MRI blood flow measurement in th...

PURPOSE We developed a novel magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technique based on chemical exchange saturation transfer (CEST) for GABA imaging and investigated the concentration-dependent CEST effect ofGABA in a rat model of brain tumor with blood-brain barrier (BBB) disruption. MATERIALS AND METHODS All MRI studies were performed using a 7.0-T Agilent MRI scanner. Z-spectra for GABA were acq...

Our study describes the time course of necrotic damage to the rat brain resulting from Leksell Gamma Knife (LGK) irradiation at a dose that was previously considered to be subnecrotic. A lesion induced in the rat hippocampus by 35 Gy irradiation was monitored by MRI, MRS, and DW-MRI for 16 months. T2-weighted images revealed a large hyperintense area with an increased apparent diffusion coeffic...