Preclinic MRI Unit

In medicine, the term magnetic resonance imaging refers to a set of techniques able to study morphological alterations or follow metabolic processes or both in living organisms. These techniques can be divided into image acquisition sequences (imaging) and spectroscopy. In fact, the anatomical study in normal and pathological conditions with imaging (MRI) can be combined with magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) to quantify in vivo the metabolites present in organs or lesions, and to follow the levels of these metabolites during evolution of a pathology or in response to therapeutic treatments.
Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) is an imaging technique used primarily for diagnostic purposes in the medical field, based on the physical principle of nuclear magnetic resonance.
The service makes use of a 4.7 T imaging and spectroscopy system for small animals, with the availability of resonant coils at the frequencies of hydrogen, phosphorus and fluorine nuclei.
The information given by the magnetic resonance images are different in nature from those of the other imaging methods, in fact it is possible the discrimination between tissues on the basis of their biochemical composition or of the water diffusion capacity in the tissues or through the use of proper parameters of the resonance phenomenon such as T₁ and T₂.

Among the numerous applications of magnetic resonance, the MRI Unit of the Service offers expertise in:

• morphological imaging weighed in T₁ and T₂ and of proton density for anatomical studies;
• diffusion-weighted imaging that includes both diffusion tensor (DTI) determination for anatomic connectivity studies in the brain and its trace (DWI with ADC measurement) for studies on the response to drugs in oncology;
• functional imaging both to study brain activation as a result of pharmacological stimuli (pharmacological MRI) and for studies of functional connectivity at rest (functional connectivity);
• in vivo, localized, spectroscopy at the frequency of the hydrogen nucleus (¹H-MRS) to study the metabolism of part of an organ or tissue in vivo during the evolution of a pathology or in response to therapeutic treatments with applications in oncology, in neuroscience and in the field of metabolic diseases;
• in vivo spectroscopy at the frequency of the phosphorus nucleus (³¹P-MRS) to study energy metabolism and to measure intracellular and extracellular pH for oncology studies;
• in vivo spectroscopy at the fluorine nucleus frequency (¹⁹F-MRS) to study the uptake and metabolism of fluorinated drugs.

Service requests to this unit must be sent by filling out the 'Service Request' online form.

Contact: Rossella Canese
☎ +39 06 4990 2567

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