Dr. Mitchell S. Albert Ph.D. This is Me

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1. 1. Wednesday 19:15 Study Group:  Hyperpolarized Noble Gas MR

   www.ismrm.org/00prog/wed/wedpm - [Cached]

   Published on: 12/8/2007   Last Visited: 12/8/2007

   Mitchell S. Albert, Chair
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   Mitchell S. Albert, Chair
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   Hot Topic: In Vivo Very Low-Field Hyperpolarized Gas Imaging, Mitchell S. Albert, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA, USA
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   Mitchell S. Albert, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA, USA

2. 2. www.rsna.org

   www.rsna.org/media/pressreleas - [Cached]

   Published on: 4/29/2003   Last Visited: 5/10/2008

   "Other non-radioactive techniques have only been able to image lung peripheries," said the study's principal investigator, Mitchell S. Albert, Ph.D., assistant professor of radiology at Harvard Medical School and director of the hyperpolarized noble gas MRI laboratory at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston."Dynamic hyperpolarized helium MR imaging offers a completely noninvasive and safe method of studying the airways."
   
   Dr. Albert collaborated with other researchers to pioneer hyperpolarized noble gas MR imaging, a technique he conceptualized in 1991 while researching the effect of anesthesia on the brain."Our new technique provides information on ventilation, while depicting structure and function of the airways," Dr. Albert said.
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   Currently, models predict where asthma closure and constriction occur in the airway tree, however, the airways during an asthma attack have never been visualized, according to Dr. Albert.
   
   "Researchers do not yet know if asthma causes a global closure and constriction of the airways, whether it happens selectively within certain parts of the bronchial tree, or if it affects one or both lungs," Dr. Albert said."With this technique we hope to actually see ventilation constriction and closure of the airways in people with asthma," he said."Symptoms can be correlated with the information from the images to assist in treatment of asthma patients."
   
   Dr. Albert and his team also plan to study bronchodilator treatment to see where bronchodilation occurs.This type of information will be beneficial to drug development and testing, he noted.
   
   "We are developing tools to measure and study airway diameters during constriction and dilation in people with asthma," Dr. Albert commented."In the weeks to come we will start dynamic hyperpolarized imaging of patients with asthma at Brigham and Women's Hospital."
   
   The new approach can easily be applied in a clinical setting."Most hospitals have MRI machines that can be converted to image helium.Consequently, this imaging technique may soon be readily available to many more patients," Dr. Albert added.
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   Collaborating with Dr. Albert on this study were Angela C. Tooker, M. Eng., Kwan Soo Hong, Ph.D., Erin L. McKinstry, B.S., Philip Costello, M.D., and Ferenc A. Jolesz, M.D., from Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston.

3. 3. Dynamic MRI Enables Airway Visualization

   www.pulmonaryreviews.com/sep03 - [Cached]

   Published on: 9/1/2003   Last Visited: 1/7/2005

   Although this method provides good information about the gas distribution and structure of the lung periphery, it does not offer a view of the airways, explained Mitchell S. Albert, PhD, an Assistant Professor of Radiology at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston.
   
   He and his colleagues adapted the technique in a recent study and found that the small airways could be visualized if the images were obtained dynamically while patients inhaled the hyperpolarized helium. With this approach, up to seventh-generation airway branching could be seen.[1]
   
   AN IMPROVED IMAGING MODALITY
   
   Previous attempts at dynamic imaging had captured airways only up to the fourth or fifth generation of branching. With these prior efforts, said Dr. Albert, "researchers had achieved the feat of visualizing the flow of gas into the lungs with high temporal resolution, but the airways were mainly visible during the initial passage of helium-3."
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   "As the patient inhales," explained Dr. Albert, "the helium gas travels through the lung; the radiofrequency pulses that are delivered start to destroy the signal in the airways so that no signal reaches the lung periphery. Since the patient is still inhaling, the signal in the airways gets refreshed, so the airways remain bright."
   
   Are there instances when a static image would be preferable? "Static images give you a homogeneous signal intensity in healthy lungs," said Dr. Albert. "You don't see the airways, but static helium-3 images are proving useful for detecting chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Dark regions in the image indicate areas of poor ventilation."
   
   Conversely, "a dynamic image would be used when you want to light up the airways," Dr. Albert continued, such as to observe bronchoconstriction in an asthma patient.