mgb-mgh-logo-1200x135.png

The Scan Times

An MGH Radiology Research Newsletter

November 2022

The science communications landscape is changing rapidly and dramatically. Time was, press releases were the primary means of sharing your work both with the media and with the public. But these are no longer the only options available to you—nor even necessarily the best. Social media posts. Videos. Brief Q&As. All of these can play an important role in conveying your findings to a broader audience.


We are excited to be working with the Mass General Research Institute to help you promote your latest findings. The Research institute recently introduced a Research Communications Request Form through which you can tell them about your work so they can help amplify the message—by issuing a press release, by creating a post on their award-winning blog, or by some other means.


Also, our friends at the Research Institute have offered to share with us submissions they receive from Radiology researchers, so we can also help you get the word out.


The shifting science communications landscape has given you more opportunities than ever before to share your research with the world. We would love to help you in this. Please don't be shy about reaching out, whether through the Research Communications Request Form or otherwise!

Bruce Rosen, Vice-Chair for Research

Quick Interviews with Interesting People: Dr. Miriam Bredella


In the latest episode of this series hosted by the Mass General Research Institute, James Brink, MD, Radiologist-in-Chief, interviews Miriam Bredella, MD, MBA about her fascinating career and her inspiring journey. Dr. Bredella is vice-chair for faculty affairs and clinical operations in Radiology and director of Mass General's Center for Faculty Development.

Breast Cancer Awareness Month: Q&A with Dr. Manisha Bahl


In recognition of Breast Cancer Awareness Month in October, the Research Institute published this Q&A with Manisha Bahl, MD, MPH, a physician-scientist from the Breast Imaging Research program investigating cutting-edge imaging techniques for breast cancer detection and diagnosis. 

Screen-Shot-2022-10-26-at-2 image

Functional MRI of Locus Coeruleus Might Detect Risk of Alzheimer's Disease


Gordon Center researchers Prokopis C. Prokopiou, PhDNina-Engels DomínguezHeidi I. L. Jacobs, PhD and colleagues have associated lower novelty-related locus coeruleus (LC) function with steeper amyloid-related cognitive decline in clinically normal older adults, suggesting functional MRI of the LC might distinguish between individuals at risk of vs. resistant to Alzheimer's disease.

Some People Who Appear to Be in a Coma May Actually Be Conscious


Martinos Center researcher Brian Edlow, MD co-authored this Scientific American article about 'covert consciousness,' a condition in which patients are aware of their surroundings but cannot respond to questions or commands during standard bedside exams.

Selective Radioembolization Yields Improved Outcomes in Hepatocellular Carcinoma


The emerging technique facilitates delivery of higher doses of radiation in treating lung cancer. Advances in Motion spoke with Mass General radiologist Eric Wehrenberg-Klee, MD about the benefits of selective radioembolization and its potential in the clinic.

Research Spotlight: Coating Exogenous Mitochondria Prior to Transplantation Improves Uptake and Reduces Toxicity


Findings by Kazuhide Hayakawa, PhD indicate that mitochondrial surface coating with artificial lipid membrane is feasible and may improve the therapeutic efficacy of mitochondria allograft.

Radiotracer that Detects an Important Contributor to Neurological Diseases Tested for the First Time in Humans


Gordon Center researchers Pedro Brugarolas, PhD, Moses Q. Wilks, PhD, Georges El Fakhri, PhD and colleagues have shown that a tracer designed to detect demyelinationthe loss of neurons’ protective coatingwas both safe and well tolerated.

In the spirit of the season, the Martinos Center's Jacob Calkins uses a pumpkin to demonstrate how MRI works in this YouTube Short.

Select Papers from October 2022

1: Weerasekera A, Ion-Mărgineanu A, Green C, Mody M, Nolan GP. Predictive models demonstrate age-dependent association of subcortical volumes and cognitive measures. Hum Brain Mapp. 2022 Oct 12. doi: 10.1002/hbm.26100. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 36222055.


2: Tootell RBH, Nasiriavanaki Z, Babadi B, Greve DN, Nasr S, Holt DJ. Interdigitated Columnar Representation of Personal Space and Visual Space in Human Parietal Cortex. J Neurosci. 2022 Oct 5:JN-RM-0516-22. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0516-22.2022. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 36198501.


3: Staziaki PV, Hedgire SS. Giant Ascending Aortic Aneurysm Causing Central Venous Occlusion. Radiology. 2022 Oct;305(1):33-34. doi: 10.1148/radiol.220414. Epub 2022 Jul 19. PMID: 35852430.


4: Numan T, Breedt LC, Maciel BAPC, Kulik SD, Derks J, Schoonheim MM, Klein M, de Witt Hamer PC, Miller JJ, Gerstner ER, Stufflebeam SM, Hillebrand A, Stam CJ, Geurts JJG, Reijneveld JC, Douw L. Regional healthy brain activity, glioma occurrence and symptomatology. Brain. 2022 Oct 21;145(10):3654-3665. doi: 10.1093/brain/awac180. PMID: 36130310; PMCID: PMC9586543.


5: Morris JC, Weiner M, Xiong C, Beckett L, Coble D, Saito N, Aisen PS, Allegri R, Benzinger TLS, Berman SB, Cairns NJ, Carrillo MC, Chui HC, Chhatwal JP, Cruchaga C, Fagan AM, Farlow M, Fox NC, Ghetti B, Goate AM, Gordon BA, Graff- Radford N, Day GS, Hassenstab J, Ikeuchi T, Jack CR, Jagust WJ, Jucker M, Levin J, Massoumzadeh P, Masters CL, Martins R, McDade E, Mori H, Noble JM, Petersen RC, Ringman JM, Salloway S, Saykin AJ, Schofield PR, Shaw LM, Toga AW, Trojanowski JQ, Vöglein J, Weninger S, Bateman RJ, Buckles VD. Autosomal dominant and sporadic late onset Alzheimer's disease share a common in vivo pathophysiology. Brain. 2022 Oct 21;145(10):3594-3607. doi: 10.1093/brain/awac181. PMID: 35580594.


6: Moni F, Petersen ME, Zhang F, Lao PJ, Zimmerman ME, Gu Y, Gutierrez J, Rizvi B, Laing KK, Igwe KC, Sathishkumar M, Keator D, Andrews H, Krinsky-McHale S, Head E, Lee JH, Lai F, Yassa MA, Rosas HD, Silverman W, Lott IT, Schupf N, O'Bryant S, Brickman AM. Probing the proteome to explore potential correlates of increased Alzheimer's-related cerebrovascular disease in adults with Down syndrome. Alzheimers Dement. 2022 Oct;18(10):1744-1753. doi: 10.1002/alz.12627. Epub 2022 Feb 24. PMID: 35212182; PMCID: PMC9399305.


7: Menardi A, Ozdemir RA, Momi D, Tadayon E, Boucher P, Vallesi A, Pascual-Leone A, Shafi MM, Santarnecchi E. Effect of group-based vs individualized stimulation site selection on reliability of network-targeted TMS. Neuroimage. 2022 Oct 26:119714. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2022.119714. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 36309331.


8: Li C, Hong Y, Yang X, Zeng X, Ocepek-Welikson K, Eimicke JP, Kong J, Sano M, Zhu C, Neugroschl J, Aloysi A, Cai D, Martin J, Loizos M, Sewell M, Akrivos J, Evans K, Sheppard F, Greenberg J, Ardolino A, Teresi JA. The use of subjective cognitive complaints for detecting mild cognitive impairment in older adults across cultural and linguistic groups: A comparison of the Cognitive Function Instrument to the Montreal Cognitive Assessment. Alzheimers Dement. 2022 Oct 12. doi: 10.1002/alz.12804. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 36222321.


9: Liu X, Xing F, El Fakhri G, Woo J. Memory consistent unsupervised off-the- shelf model adaptation for source-relaxed medical image segmentation. Med Image Anal. 2022 Oct 1;83:102641. doi: 10.1016/j.media.2022.102641. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 36265264.


10: Lennartz S, Hokamp NG, Kambadakone A. Dual-Energy CT of the Abdomen: Radiology In Training. Radiology. 2022 Oct;305(1):19-27. doi: 10.1148/radiol.212914. Epub 2022 Jun 21. PMID: 35727149.


11: Lee JH, Lee D, Lu MT, Raghu VK, Park CM, Goo JM, Choi SH, Kim H. Deep Learning to Optimize Candidate Selection for Lung Cancer CT Screening: Advancing the 2021 USPSTF Recommendations. Radiology. 2022 Oct;305(1):209-218. doi: 10.1148/radiol.212877. Epub 2022 Jun 14. PMID: 35699582.


12: Katsumi Y, Putcha D, Eckbo R, Wong B, Quimby M, McGinnis S, Touroutoglou A, Dickerson BC. Anterior dorsal attention network tau drives visual attention deficits in posterior cortical atrophy. Brain. 2022 Oct 14:awac245. doi: 10.1093/brain/awac245. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 36237170.


13: Janssen O, Jansen WJ, Vos SJB, Boada M, Parnetti L, Gabryelewicz T, Fladby T, Molinuevo JL, Villeneuve S, Hort J, Epelbaum S, Lleó A, Engelborghs S, van der Flier WM, Landau S, Popp J, Wallin A, Scheltens P, Rikkert MO, Snyder PJ, Rowe C, Chételat G, Ruíz A, Marquié M, Chipi E, Wolfsgruber S, Heneka M, Boecker H, Peters O, Jarholm J, Rami L, Tort-Merino A, Binette AP, Poirier J, Rosa-Neto P, Cerman J, Dubois B, Teichmann M, Alcolea D, Fortea J, Sánchez-Saudinós MB, Ebenau J, Pocnet C, Eckerström M, Thompson L, Villemagne V, Buckley R, Burnham S, Delarue M, Freund-Levi Y, Wallin ÅK, Ramakers I, Tsolaki M, Soininen H, Hampel H, Spiru L; Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative; FACEHBI study group; PREVENT-AD research group, Tijms B, Ossenkoppele R, Verhey FRJ, Jessen F, Visser PJ. Characteristics of subjective cognitive decline associated with amyloid positivity. Alzheimers Dement. 2022 Oct;18(10):1832-1845. doi: 10.1002/alz.12512. Epub 2021 Dec 8. PMID: 34877782.


14: Hoopes A, Mora JS, Dalca AV, Fischl B, Hoffmann M. SynthStrip: skull- stripping for any brain image. Neuroimage. 2022 Oct 15;260:119474. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2022.119474. Epub 2022 Jul 13. PMID: 35842095; PMCID: PMC9465771.


15: Haider A, Zhao C, Wang L, Xiao Z, Rong J, Xia X, Chen Z, Pfister SK, Mast N, Yutuc E, Chen J, Li Y, Shao T, Warnock GI, Dawoud A, Connors TR, Oakley DH, Wei H, Wang J, Zheng Z, Xu H, Davenport AT, Daunais JB, Van RS, Shao Y, Wang Y, Zhang MR, Gebhard C, Pikuleva I, Levey AI, Griffiths WJ, Liang SH. Assessment of cholesterol homeostasis in the living human brain. Sci Transl Med. 2022 Oct 5;14(665):eadc9967. doi: 10.1126/scitranslmed.adc9967. Epub 2022 Oct 5. PMID: 36197966; PMCID: PMC9581941.


16: García-Gomar MG, Singh K, Cauzzo S, Bianciardi M. In vivo structural connectome of arousal and motor brainstem nuclei by 7 Tesla and 3 Tesla MRI. Hum Brain Mapp. 2022 Oct 1;43(14):4397-4421. doi: 10.1002/hbm.25962. Epub 2022 May 28. PMID: 35633277; PMCID: PMC9435015.


17: Fazal Z, Gomez DEP, Llera A, Marques JPRF, Beck T, Poser BA, Norris DG. A comparison of multiband and multiband multiecho gradient-echo EPI for task fMRI at 3 T. Hum Brain Mapp. 2022 Oct 5. doi: 10.1002/hbm.26081. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 36196782.


18: Dickey CW, Verzhbinsky IA, Jiang X, Rosen BQ, Kajfez S, Eskandar EN, Gonzalez-Martinez J, Cash SS, Halgren E. Cortical Ripples during NREM Sleep and Waking in Humans. J Neurosci. 2022 Oct 19;42(42):7931-7946. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0742-22.2022. Epub 2022 Aug 30. PMID: 36041852.


19: Dhamala E, Ooi LQR, Chen J, Kong R, Anderson KM, Chin R, Yeo BTT, Holmes AJ. Proportional intracranial volume correction differentially biases behavioral predictions across neuroanatomical features, sexes, and development. Neuroimage. 2022 Oct 15;260:119485. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2022.119485. Epub 2022 Jul 14. PMID: 35843514; PMCID: PMC9425854.


20: Buckles VD, Xiong C, Bateman RJ, Hassenstab J, Allegri R, Berman SB, Chhatwal JP, Danek A, Fagan AM, Ghetti B, Goate A, Graff-Radford N, Jucker M, Levin J, Marcus DS, Masters CL, McCue L, McDade E, Mori H, Moulder KL, Noble JM, Paumier K, Preische O, Ringman JM, Fox NC, Salloway S, Schofield PR, Martins R, Vöglein J, Morris JC; Dominantly Inherited Alzheimer's Network. Different rates of cognitive decline in autosomal dominant and late-onset Alzheimer disease. Alzheimers Dement. 2022 Oct;18(10):1754-1764. doi: 10.1002/alz.12505. Epub 2021 Dec 2. PMID: 34854530; PMCID: PMC9160203.


21: Brugarolas P, Wilks MQ, Noel J, Kaiser JA, Vesper DR, Ramos-Torres KM, Guehl NJ, Macdonald-Soccorso MT, Sun Y, Rice PA, Yokell DL, Lim R, Normandin MD, El Fakhri G. Human biodistribution and radiation dosimetry of the demyelination tracer [18F]3F4AP. Eur J Nucl Med Mol Imaging. 2022 Oct 5. doi: 10.1007/s00259-022-05980-w. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 36197499.


22: Blazejewska AI, Witzel T, Andersson JLR, Wald LL, Polimeni JR. Slice- direction geometric distortion evaluation and correction with reversed slice- select gradient acquisitions. Neuroimage. 2022 Oct 22:119701. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2022.119701. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 36283542.


23: Atzeni A, Peter L, Robinson E, Blackburn E, Althonayan J, Alexander DC, Iglesias JE. Deep active learning for suggestive segmentation of biomedical image stacks via optimisation of Dice scores and traced boundary length. Med Image Anal. 2022 Oct;81:102549. doi: 10.1016/j.media.2022.102549. Epub 2022 Jul 24. PMID: 36113320.