The 2021 Summer Edition of the CIBM Breakfast and Science Seminar series featured PhD students affiliated to CIBM founding partner institutions to present their research work.
New insights into brain energy metabolism in type C hepatic encephalopathy: a dual 18F-FDG PET and 9.4T 1H MRS preclinical study
Jessie Mosso,
LIFMET, EPFL
Abstract: Type C hepatic encephalopathy (HE) is a severe neuropsychiatric decline occurring as a consequence of chronic liver disease and which drastically affects patients’ lives. Energy metabolism alterations have been suggested in HE, but in vivo studies remain sparse and have reported conflicting results. Here, we propose an atlas-based coregistration of preclinical 18F-FDG PET with localized 1H-MR spectroscopy, providing regional and quantitative information on both brain glucose uptake and neurometabolic profiles. In a rat model of type C HE, a 2-fold lower brain glucose uptake, concomitant with an increase in brain glutamine and a
decrease in the main osmolytes was observed in the hippocampus and in the cerebellum. These findings are an important step towards new insights into brain energy metabolism in the pathophysiology of HE.
PhD Supervisors: Dr. Cristina Cudalbu (CIBM MRI EPFL) & Prof. Rolf Gruetter (EPFL)
Towards super-resolution reconstruction of fetal brain MRI
Hamza Kebiri,
Medical Image Analysis Lab, UNIL
Abstract: :
Fetal Diffusion Magnetic Resonance Imaging (dMRI) is greatly limited in Signal-to-Noise ratio and spatial resolution. Due to the uncontrollable fetal motion, echo planar imaging acquisitions often result in highly degraded images, hence the ability to depict precise diffusion MR properties remains unknown. The first part of the talk will cover the assessment of the effect of scanning settings on diffusion quantities in a crossing phantom specifically designed to mimic typical values in the fetal brain. Quantitative evaluation was carried out on the number of diffusion gradient directions, different orthogonal acquisitions, and enhanced 4D volumes from super-resolution reconstruction of multiple series. In the second part of this talk, I will present preliminary results on an unsupervised learning method using a variational autoencoder to perform
through-plane super-resolution on both phantom and in vivo fetal data.
PhD Supervisor: Dr. Meritxell Bach Cuadra (CIBM SP CHUV-UNIL)
The monthly meet-up seminar series is a great environment to ask questions or to share insights on challenges and solutions. It’s also a good way to broaden and enrich professional networks.