Medical Physics Seminar – Monday, September 25, 2023
Quantitative and Functional Vascular Imaging with MRI
Kevin M. Johnson, PhD
Associate Professor, Medical Physics and Radiology, UW-Madison
All the leading causes of mortality and morbidity occur with changes to the vascular system, yet in many diseases we still have a poor understanding of the vascular influence on these diseases. For example, cardiovascular factors are linked to risks of Alzheimer's disease and some form of cancer but why? Imaging with MRI provides a unique and comprehensive tool to characterize vascular disease, including depiction of hemodynamics, vessel structures, and downstream damage pathology. However, for all its potential, and despite tremendous hardware improvements, MRI has been historically constricted by its slow speed, low detection sensitivity, and imaging inaccuracies. For more than two decades, our research group has been working to develop and apply advanced vascular imaging with the overall goal of comprehensively depicting vascular influences on disease. This talk will provide an overview of technical and disease progress, focused on accelerating acquisitions, removing ambiguities and artifacts, and quantitative techniques.