PHARMACOLOGICAL MRI (PHMRI)

摘要

A method for Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) of changes in neurotransmitter and neuroreceptor activity as a metabolic response to diagnostic challenge o r therapeutic treatment in a patient with suspected or already diagnosed menta l illnesses of psychiatric, neurodegenerative or neurological nature, comprisi ng the steps of: a) administering to said patient a drug eliciting an MRI detectable hemodynamic response; b) administering to said patient an MRI contrast agent with high magnetic susceptibility and c) measuring, in a spatially and temporally resolved manner, relative Cerebral Blood Volume (rCBV) changes associated to neuronal activation using T2- or T2*- weighted MRI scans at the equilibrium distribution of said contrast agent.