Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Mazziotta, John C.
• Frackowiak, Richard S.J.

Titel

1 - The Study of Human Disease with Brain Mapping Methods

Ist Teil von

• Brain Mapping: The Disorders, 2000, p.3-31

Ort / Verlag

Academic Press

Erscheinungsjahr

2000

Link zum Volltext

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• This chapter focuses on the different brain mapping applications to the study of human cerebral disorders. Disorders of the human nervous system are among the most debilitating and devastating of all human illnesses. Such disorders not only affect the physical abilities of patients but often severely compromise the quality of life. Brain mapping methods have advanced so rapidly and hold such promise for improved diagnostics, monitoring of therapeutics, and providing insights into the basic mechanisms of brain disease. A number of techniques are devoted specifically to describe brain structure. These include X-ray computed tomography (CT), conventional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and blood vessel imaging using either conventional angiography, magnetic resonance angiography (MRA), or helical CT. The determination of chemical processes in the brain falls mainly in the domain of positron emission tomography (PET) and magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS). MRS provides relative measurements of chemical compounds relying primarily on hydrogen spectra but at higher magnetic field strengths can also estimate relative quantities of sodium, fluorine, carbon and phosphorus. The evaluation of receptor systems in the brain, both transmitter molecules and receptor complexes, has been an active area of research in both health and disease using PET and SPECT.