Wendy Ni
Electrical Engineering
Bio-X SIGF Fellow 2012/2013
Profs. Greg Zaharchuk (Radiology) and Dwight Nishimura (Electrical Engineering)

Cerebral oxygen metabolism is altered in many pathological conditions; however, there is currently no fast, reliable and high-resolution method for whole-brain mapping of oxygenation.  Existing magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) methods suffer from inadequate signal modeling and reliance on potentially toxic contrast agents for the vital measurement of cerebral blood volume (CBV).  The goals of this project are to design and implement an MRI sequence to translate a novel numerical signal modeling approach to clinical use and to develop a novel, non-contrast-enhanced CBV measurement technique.  Through interdisciplinary collaborations, these methods will be optimized for mapping brain oxygenation in stroke patients.