MRI research on nerve fibres in the brain

A recent discovery may provide the medical world with a new tool that will help improve diagnosis and monitoring of neuro-degenerative diseases like multiple sclerosis (MS).

A study that was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, shines light on why images produced by MRI of the brain are so sensitive to the direction in which nerve fiber run.

The nerve fibres in the white matter of the brain are encased by a fatty substance, this fatty substance is know as myelin. Myelin helps the nerve fibres relay information in a much faster rate. The appearance of white matter in an MRI depends on the angle and the direction in which the strong magnetic field in an MRI scanner is pointing.

As scientist and researchers learn more about the molecular structure of myelin, a new model has arrived that represents the nerve fibres as long thing hollow tubes with special magnetic properties. This model was invented by the Nottingham physicists.

Research Fellow Dr Samuel Wharton said: "While most MRI-based research focuses on tissue measurements at the millimetre length scale, our experimental scans on healthy human volunteers and modelling of the myelin sheath shows that much more detailed microscopic information relating to the size and direction of nerve fibres can be generated using fairly simple imaging techniques. The results will give clinicians more context in which to recognise and identify lesions or abnormalities in the brain and will also help them to tailor different types of scan to a particular patient."

Head of the School of Physics and Astronomy, Professor Richard Bowtell added "These results should be an important boost to the world of biomedical imaging which is a key research priority here at The University of Nottingham. We have a strong heritage of groundbreaking work in MRI at the Sir Peter Mansfield Magnetic Resonance Centre and the work was carried out using our 7T scanner which is the strongest magnetic field system for scanning human subjects in the UK."

Dr Nikolaos Evangelou, Clinical Associate Professor specialising in multiple sclerosis at the Nottingham University Hospitals Trust said: "This research opens new avenues of looking at the nerve fibres in the brain. The more we understand about the nerves and the myelin around them, the more successful we are in studying brain diseases, such as multiple sclerosis. The recent advances in our understanding and treatments of MS are based on basic, solid research such as the one presented by Dr Wharton and Bowtell."

This research will give scientist and clinicians world wide a broader knowledge of the effects of nerve fibres and their orientation in MRI. This also has useful information that will help in the diagnosis and monitoring of brain and the nervous system in diseases like multiple sclerosis.

Gabriel D.

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Reference: MSRC - MedPage Today © MediLexicon International Ltd 2004-2012 (06/11/12)