Seminar

Medical Physics Seminar – Monday, April 6, 2020

Hyperpolarized gas MRI for evaluation of longitudinal changes in Ventilation in Pulmonary Diseases

Katie Carey (student of Sean Fain)

Hyperpolarized gas MRI allows for direct visualization of gas distribution in the lungs without the use of ionizing radiation. While the gold standard for pulmonary lung diseases are pulmonary function tests (PFTs), they are only a global measure and do not provide any regional ventilation information. With HP gas MRI, we can evaluate regional ventilation heterogeneity. Longitudinal studies with HP gas MRI allow for evaluation of regional changes in ventilation in accordance with disease progression and help us further understand the progression of pulmonary diseases.


Improving Cerebral CT Angiography Small Vessel Image Quality with Photon Counting Detector Technology

Evan Harvey (student of Ke Li)

Cerebral CT Angiography (CCTA) is a widely used diagnostic tool for various neurovascular diseases such as stroke, aneurysms, and vasculitis. However, limited by the physical performance of scintillator-based energy integrating detectors used in current CT systems, an important challenge remaining for CCTA is the visibility of small perforating arteries (diameter below 0.5 mm). Photon counting detector based CT (PCCT) offers potential technological solutions for small iodinated vessel detection which include improved spatial resolution, reduced partial volume effect, and increased CNR of iodinated vessels. This work will experimentally demonstrate the benefits of PCCT based CCTA while providing a theoretical framework to pinpoint how the various photon counting detector properties impact the image quality performance.


Location: Webex

Time: 3:45 PM-5:15 PM