Imaging :: New MRI technique measures intracranial pressure in brain disorder

A new advanced magnetic resonance imaging technique developed at the University of Illinois at Chicago for the diagnosis of neurological problems, such as Chiari malformations, hydrocephalus and brain injury, will be evaluated for clinical use through a $1.4 million National Institutes of Health Bioengineering Research Partnership grant.

The project, which draws on bioengineering, radiology and neurosurgery, will determine the clinical potential of a non-invasive measurement of intracranial pressure and compliance to the diagnosis and treatment of patients with Chiari malformation.

The new technique relies on a novel algorithm that determines “intracranial compliance” from the change in fluid volume and pressure occurring with each heartbeat as blood and cerebral spinal fluid flow in and out of the cranium. Intracranial compliance is the ability of the intracranial compartment to accommodate an increase in volume without a large increase in pressure.

“We believe that in Chiari malformation both the severity of symptoms and the likely success of surgery are related to intracranial compliance,” said Noam Alperin, UIC associate professor of medical physics and head of the MRI research laboratory in the department of radiology. “This new method gives us a non-invasive way to study a relatively common and poorly understood neurological problem.”


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