Illinois Medicine

A BETTER VIEW UIC has a powerful new magnetic resonance imaging center for patients and the world's most powerful MRI machine for research I N JUNE, THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS MEDICAL CENTER opened a new Advanced Imaging Center with the latest generation of magnetic resonance imaging, continuing UIC's pioneering use of powerful 3.0-tesla MRI technology. The new MRI machine, an ultrahigh-field system, is the highest-resolution MRI scanner in Chicago and will be used exclusively for clinical practice. The system enables faster and higher-resolution scans, resulting in improved image quality and potentially more accurate diagnoses, according to Masoud Hemmati, MD, professor and head of radiology at the University of Illinois College of Medicine. Faster scans mean less time in the scanner for the patient: Most scans at the new facility can be completed in only 15 to 40 minutes. The scanner's compact design also makes it less intimidating— the patient opening is the widest of any 3.0-T system, further contributing to the patient's comfort. Keith Thulborn, MD, PhD, and his team are at the frontier of diagnosing disease. and after transplant surgery. The new facility will also have a suite for breast MRI, which some studies have shown may yield important information missed by standard mammography. Meanwhile, new images from the "Combine that with our vast expe- rience with the 3.0-T imaging for more than 10 years, and our new center represents a tremendous diagnostic benefit to the community," Hemmati says. The level of detail the ultrahigh- field system provides can help radiolo- gists make earlier diagnoses. Hemmati says the fine detail is ideal for neuro- imaging and functional MRI, permitting neurosurgeons to map the brain prior to surgery for brain tumors. The new scanner will also allow functional MRI of the abdomen, permitting physicians to assess kidney or liver function before Ian C. Atkinson, PhD, prepares for a research study at the 9.4-tesla lab. world's most powerful magnetic reso- nance imaging machine, the 9.4-tesla MRI at UIC, are opening radical new possibilities for the diagnosis and treat- ment of disease. "We are using the 9.4-T to de- velop a toolbox that allows us to see perturbations of tissue health at the very first sign of disease," says Keith Thulborn, MD, PhD, director of the UIC Center for Magnetic Resonance Research. These tools, Thulborn says, will allow clinicians to gauge the health of the brain by showing the metabolic functioning of its tissue. Developing effective therapies for neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's, which damage the brain years before the appearance of clinical symptoms, depends on recognizing the beginning of the disease process and then mea- suring whether a particular intervention is working. "In medical practice today we have very sophisticated technology, but we are treating advanced disease," Thulborn says. "We are playing catch- up. The goal for medicine should be early intervention—to treat disease earlier. Think of treating hypertension at age 25 instead of performing a heart transplant at 65." Working from 9.4-T images, Thul- born and his colleagues at the center, assistant professors Ian Atkinson, PhD, and Aiming Lu, PhD, have developed a new metabolic-imaging toolbox that has three components, each of which measures a different "bioscale"—a quantitative parameter that is a mea- sure of regional tissue health. "Clinical trials are often considered a success if, say, 60 percent of patients respond to a treatment," Thulborn says. "What if we could detect early in treatment, on an individual level, that 30 percent of patients show excellent response to treatment; 30 percent should perhaps combine this treatment with additional adjuvant therapy; and the nonresponders should immediately receive other treatments?" Thulborn says that the 9.4-T's 45-ton magnet, which has a magnetic field about 100,000 times stronger than Earth's, has been critical to the advanc- es his team has made. "It would have taken years and years to develop the insight and understanding to overcome the hurdles using the more widely avail- able 3-T diagnostic MRI," he says. Right now there are only four 9.4-T MRI machines in the world. "We have used the 9.4-T's sensitivity to de- velop this new way to see the disease process," Thulborn says. "We will one day be able to interpret the less- sharp images in more widely available diagnostic MRIs and extract the same information." PHOTO: LLOYD DEGRANE I L L INOI S MEDICINE | 7 PHOTO: LLOYD DEGRANE

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