Girolamo Garreffa
Centro ME.DI. (Napoli) & Fondazione Potito (Campobasso) Italy
Title: A non invasive multimodal Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) application for predictive assessment of Peripheral Artheropathy (Diabetic Foot disease)
Biography
Biography: Girolamo Garreffa
Abstract
The proposed study is based on a non-conventional use of advanced methods of MRI with the acquisition of a time series of ultrafast images with contrast weighted on dynamic blood oxygen level. A continuous acquisition is performed before, during and after the application of a standardized stimulus produced by a dedicated external mechanical device acting on the upper part of the ankle of the foot under investigation. The simultaneous use of MRI compatible Near Infrared Spectroscopy (NIRS) detectors, placed on a given distance and position from the mechanical action and on the limb surface can be used to standardize the stimulus by controlling the oxy/deoxy hemoglobin ratio on a tissue volume below the NIRS detector. A dedicated analysis procedure to extract the time course of one or more regions of interest on the acquired MRI foot images, allows to identify the mechanical action phase on each related graph obtained. The curve is characterized by a flat portion for basal condition, a descending tract in correspondence of the onset of mechanical stimulus and of a recovery tract immediately after stimulus cessation. A suitable curve fitting of this recovery portion will provide a characteristic time constant directly representative, in its magnitude, of the possible incoming disease and if so, a powerful diagnostic non invasive tool can be realized not only in disease grade assessing but also for the follow-up, for example, to evaluate benefits after drug therapies studies. Preliminary results on health subjects support the feasibility of this investigation procedure