March 2008

Our New Chief Residents for 2008-2009

Congratulations to our two new chief residents for the 2008-2009 academic year, Pat Auveek Basu, MD, MBA, and Pejman Ghanouni, MD, PhD! They assume their chief duties on July 1, 2008.

Chief Resident Pat Auveek Basu, MD, MBA, currently serves as a member of Stanford's Graduate Medical Education Committee and as course director of the "Health Economics, Finance, and Policy" course offered to Stanford physicians and medical students. He has been invited to speak both nationally and internationally regarding issues of healthcare policy and finance. Dr. Basu's experiences outside of clinical medicine include working as a medical advisor to a venture capital firm; as a management consultant to corporations and hospitals; and as co-founder of a start-up firm. Having previously interned in Congress, Dr. Basu is still heavily involved in matters of health policy and was honored for his efforts in 2007, receiving the American Medical Association's (AMA) Excellence in Medicine Leadership Award.

Prior to coming to Stanford, Dr. Basu served as chief resident during his transitional year at Resurrection Hospital in Chicago. Dr. Basu graduated with honors from the University of Chicago, where he received his MD and MBA. During this time, he was elected president of his business school cohort and the Dean's Council representative of his medical school class. Dr. Basu earned his undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Illinois, where he was elected to the University's Senate and Homecoming Court.

On New Year's Eve, 2006, Dr. Basu married his wife, Erika, who is a school teacher by training and currently works at the Stanford Design Institute. They enjoy spending time with their friends and family. Dr. Basu's older brother is a radiologist in Chicago and his younger sister is a consultant at Mckinsey. Together, Dr. Basu and Erika enjoy working out, travelling, and reading. Dr. Basu loves to play a variety of sports, and he is a die-hard fan of the Chicago Cubs, Bulls, Bears, and Illinois Fighting Illini. He is looking forward to helping keep Stanford Radiology at the top of its game.

Chief Resident Pejman Ghanouni, MD, PhD, has been a part of the Stanford community since 1994 when he arrived as a member of the Medical Scientist Training Program, after completing his BA and MA at Harvard. His research interest in the biophysical mechanism of drug-receptor activation led him to collaborations at universities in Copenhagen, Portland, and Baltimore, and included a two-year stint as a senior scientist at a start-up biotechnology company. Dr. Ghanouni graduated from Stanford in 2005, winning the Norman Blank Award for the Outstanding Medical Student in Radiology.

Academically, he hopes to contribute to the ongoing marriage of radiology and molecular biology, and he is currently pursuing MR imaging research in musculoskeletal pain and inflammation. Outside of radiology, Dr. Ghanouni enjoys Mom's kofta, backcountry camping, rock climbing, chess, and the occasional Sunday afternoon at the Giants' ballpark. He feels privileged to have been selected as a chief resident, and he is looking forward to getting involved in the educational and administrative aspects of the residency program.

Awards and Honors: March 27, 2008

Arne Vandenbroucke, PhD, postdoctoral scholar in the Molecular Imaging Instrumentation Laboratory (MIIL), received the Henri Benedictus Fellowship from the Belgian American Educational Foundation (BAEF) and the King Baudouin Foundation. The BAEF promotes the exchange of scientists and students between the US and Belgium. The Henri Benedictus Fellowship is awarded to scientists whose research is in the field of biomedical engineering. Dr. Vandenbroucke is working on the design of a high sensitivity, high resolution PET scanner for breast cancer imaging; the fellowship will allow him to continue this work. He was selected for the Henri Benedictus fellowship after he defended his research in front of 15 scientists in Brussels, Belgium, in January of 2008. For Dr. Vandenbroucke's biography please access an earlier award posting at http://radiology.stanford.edu/blog/archives/2007/12/awards_and_hono_23.html.

Awards and Honors: March 26, 2008

Norbert Pelc, ScD, professor of radiology and bioengineering and, by courtesy, electrical engineering, has been elected to Fellow of the American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM). Dr. Pelc was awarded this honor for his distinguished contributions to the advancement of medical physics knowledge based upon independent original research or development and for his medical physics educational activities, especially in regard to the education and training of medical physicists, medical students, medical residents, and allied health personnel. The director of the Radiological Sciences Laboratory as well as professor of radiology and, by courtesy, of electrical engineering and of psychology, Dr. Gary Glover, commented that "[a] few people make major contributions to one or two diagnostic modalities in their lifetimes; Norbert is remarkable in that he has contributed outstanding achievements in virtually all fields of diagnostic imaging and is thereby internationally known as a thought leader in basic radiological science, education, and research policy at Stanford. We can all be proud of Norbert and delight in this fine recognition of our colleague's lifetime accomplishments." Dr. Pelc will be honored at an awards ceremony and reception at the July 2008 AAPM meeting in Houston, Texas.

(Image courtesy of Mark Riesenberger)

The Movie Sequence at Lucas Presents Smiles of a Summer Night (1955)

This Wednesday, March 19th, at 6 PM, the Movie Sequence at Lucas presents Smiles of a Summer Night (1955) in the Lucas Learning Center. Smiles of a Summer Night was written and directed by Ingmar Bergman. For a movie summary/review, please see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smiles_of_a_Summer_Night. If you like, please bring something to snack on and/or something to share. Also, the movie is in Swedish, so bring your glasses if you need them to read subtitles. If you have questions, please contact Erika Rubesova, MD; Chardonnay Vance, MS; or Ulrich Willi, MD.

The Movie Sequence takes place every first and third Wednesday of the month at 6 PM (the film will play at 6:15 PM) in the Lucas Learning Center as a private event and free of charge. Black and white classics of various cultural backgrounds will be shown. Everyone is very welcome.

For the Movie Sequence online calendar, please visit
http://www.google.com/calendar/embed?src=movie.sequence%40gmail.com&ctz=A.

Stanford Hospital and Clinics Computed Tomography Section

From left to right: Reuben Brown, Michele Thomas, Kim Piter, James Soriano, Amy Wu, and Monglan Duong.

By Julie Ruiz, PhD
(Image courtesy of Mark Riesenberger)

As a former member of the Enterprise Access Team, CT Supervisor Michele Thomas is helping to transform patient care at Stanford Hospital and Clinics (SHC) by changing the way health care is delivered. Along with the other groups that comprise the Epic Design Parameters Teams, the Enterprise Access Team met for over five months to analyze current state workflows throughout SHC, including scheduling, discharging, and documenting. As the representative for Radiology, Ms. Thomas and her team discovered that patients need better access to radiological services.

Over the years, the CT section has been working to improve health care at SHC. When Ms. Thomas first began working as a part-time staff technologist in the CT section in May of 1989, there were only two GE 9800 CT scanners at SHC. There was no helical scanning, only axial. Around 1991, the section added their first Siemens Somatom helical scanner, which was located in the mobile building in the parking lot for 18 months until Blake Wilbur was built.

Shortly after Ms. Thomas became the CT supervisor in 2001, SHC added a 16-slice GE scanner, bringing the total number in the hospital to three by 2002. By April of 2008, SHC will have replaced its oldest single-slice scanner with a new GE 64-slice scanner. Until this replacement is complete, the CT section is using a 16-slice multidetector-row CT mobile scanner. Once the installation of the 64-slice scanner is complete, the CT section will be able to perform cardiac scanning on inpatients for the first time ever. Currently, this procedure is only available to outpatients at Blake Wilbur. These advances in technology also require more complicated protocols, and the CT section now does many more protocols than before such as CT IVPs, CT enterography, CT angiography, as well as biphasic pancreas and biphasic liver scans.

Alongside the rapid technological growth, the CT section has experienced an increase in staff. In 1989, the CT section had about two to three CT technologists working the day shift and two technologists staffing the evening shift. Now, they have four to five technologists during the day shift and three to four in the evenings. Most of the hiring is done within Stanford and most of the technologists are diagnostic technologists who have been cross trained in CT. Ms. Thomas described her staff as "energetic multitaskers" who work closely with the fellows and residents in a very busy and fast-paced section. The dedicated staff of the CT section have won various awards such as the Wingspread Award, which is given by one employee to another who has proven that he or she is a "special performer" by demonstrating exemplary job performance. Michele Thomas, Monglang Duong, and Mark Donnelly have all been awarded a Wingspread Award for their outstanding contributions to CT.

In the future, Ms. Thomas hopes that the opening of Palo Alto Imaging and the Stanford Medicine Outpatient Center (Redwood City) will help to decrease the number of outpatients scheduled at the hospital so that they can respond more quickly to the needs of their inpatients.

Announcements: March 14, 2008

Robert J. Gropler, MD, to Speak on "Diabetic Cardiomyopathy: Use of Imaging to Cross the Translational Divide": Monday, March 17th, seminar from 4:30 PM to 5:15 PM; discussion from 5:15 PM to 5:30 PM; and reception from 5:30 PM to 6:00 PM in the Clark Center Auditorium. As part of the Molecular Imaging Seminar Series, the Molecular Imaging Program at Stanford (MIPS) and Philips present Robert J. Gropler, MD, professor of radiology, medicine, and biomedical engineering from the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Missouri. Dr. Gropler will be speaking on "Diabetic Cardiomyopathy: Use of Imaging to Cross the Translational Divide." Please find his abstract as well as directions to his talk below. This seminar is hosted by Drs. Sanjiv Sam Gambhir, MD, PhD, and Edward Graves, PhD.

Abstract:
There is a growing epidemic of diabetes mellitus in the United States with a projected increase of 30% in the prevalence of this disease over the next 10 years. Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in these patients. The myocardial metabolic phenotype of the diabetic heart (an over-dependence on fatty acid metabolism) appears to be an important contributor to the left ventricular dysfunction observed in these patients. Our work has focused on optimizing PET techniques to provide quantitative measurements of myocardial substrate metabolism in rodents that are applicable to the human heart. We are then applying these methods to better characterize the metabolic perturbations of the diabetic heart, including their contribution to left ventricular dysfunction, and the potential role of novel therapeutic approaches to reduce the cardiovascular manifestations of this disease.

Directions:
From the 101 Freeway exit on University Ave South/West: Proceed for several miles on University Ave., which becomes Palm Dr. after you pass El Camino Real. Take Palm Dr. past Arboretum Rd. Then, turn right on Campus Drive, and follow this road directly to the Clark Building.

From the 280 Freeway exit Sand Hill Rd. East: Follow this road for several miles. Take a right on Arboretum Rd. Then, take a left on Quarry Rd. Then, turn right on Campus Drive, and follow this road directly to the Clark Building. Turn right into the parking lot before the stop sign at Welch Road and Campus Drive. Parking is free after 4:00 PM right next to the Clark Building. If you have questions, please contact Susan Singh at 650-736-9781.

Announcements: March 13, 2008

**Special Guest Speaker**: Friday, March 14, 2008, from 12:00 PM to 1:00 PM in Lucas RLC P083. Dr. Michael Federle, professor of radiology at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, will deliver a talk entitled "Evaluation of the Incidental or Benign Focal Liver Mass."

"Please Don't Push Me Off My Segway"

Dr. Poullos and his wife, Amy

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Peter Poullos, MD, is a fourth-year radiology resident who will be continuing in a body imaging fellowship at Stanford in July of 2008. During his residency, he has been part of Dr. R. Brooke Jeffrey's colonography working group, researching the role of CT and MRI colonography in the detection of colorectal cancer. Dr. Poullos completed his Bachelor of Science degree in biology at Santa Clara University and received his medical degree from the University of Texas Medical School at Houston. While in medical school, Dr. Poullos was a member of the Alpha Omega Alpha Society and received the Outstanding Student Award in Fundamentals of Clinical Medicine. He completed his residency in internal medicine and a fellowship in gastroenterology at the University of California, San Francisco. Dr. Poullos' community work includes serving as a member of the operating committee for SCORE (Spinal Cord Opportunities for Rehabilitation Endowment), where he is responsible for fundraising, outreach, grant application review, and grant presentations to improve the lives of spinal cord injured athletes. Dr. Poullos is also a member of the board of directors for Ophoenix Public Benefit Corporation, a nonprofit that helps physically disabled people transition from hospitalization to the community. When he is not at work, he enjoys traveling, cycling, applying his fluency in Spanish, and learning foreign languages.

"Please Don't Push Me Off My Segway"
By Peter D. Poullos, MD
(This article also appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle, on Sunday, February 17, 2008; http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2008/02/17/INMSV3G2E.DTL)

My patient was bleeding profusely from the esophagus, and, as a first-year gastroenterology fellow, I had been called in to the UCSF intensive care unit to stop it. We were successful. The next morning, Jan. 4, 2003, I went out for a bike ride--but never made it home.

In a freak accident, I was thrown headfirst over my handlebars and paralyzed from the shoulders down. At San Francisco General, my pulse and blood pressure crashed. The trauma team, my own colleagues, administered life-saving dopamine and rushed me to the ICU. I spent five days there, barely able to breathe, staring at my motionless limbs, powerless to will them to move.

Astoundingly, within days, I began regaining slight movements, first in my left leg, then my right. I was transferred to Santa Clara Valley Medical Center, an elite spinal-cord injury treatment center, where I underwent intensive rehab. There, my recovery continued, and I slowly exceeded the expectations of my therapists. My progress kept optimism alive, as my left arm started to move, and then my recalcitrant right.

Our tiny Potrero Hill condo filled up with helpful gadgets, including a mouth-stick for typing, a neat chair that doubled as a commode and shower bench, and a massage table where I could be stretched to avoid contractures. I continued to rehabilitate, working out three hours per day, six days per week.

I learned to stand, and subsequently to walk. Plastic leg braces were ordered, as well as a platform walker. The walker was eventually replaced by forearm crutches. To everyone--except for my wife, Amy, and me--it was miraculous.

Unfortunately, nine months after my injury, despite continued workouts, the recovery decelerated. My right leg dragged behind me, catching on cracks in the sidewalk and tripping me. After just five minutes, I needed to sit, too weak to continue. This "walking" was OK around the house, but was not going to get me far on the outside. I had no ability to maneuver around the medical center, in a shopping mall, or even down the street. I discovered that "walking" wasn't really walking.

We reluctantly ordered a motorized wheelchair. Despite the faux-carbon fiber frame, leatherette backrest, and gel-cushioned seat, the chair remained a powerful symbol of illness and disability. I was ashamed, but had no choice, especially if I was going to return to work.

Unable to examine patients or perform procedures, I could not continue as a gastroenterologist. I had to start over, retraining in a specialty that could accommodate my disability. I chose radiology at Stanford Medical Center. With a specially modified van purchased by the California State Department of Rehab to transport my wheelchair, and a team of volunteers to assist me, I was moving forward.

Amy and I were energetic people and desperately wanted to be active again. Even in the disabled-friendly Bay Area, there were barriers. A road too rough or a curb too steep would quickly shut us down. Four years after my injury, we attempted a Tuscan vacation.

Without transportation for the motorized wheelchair, we left it behind. I brought crutches, leg braces and a small manual wheelchair. The first day, the reality of our situation hit us. Cobblestone streets, inclines, and lack of access conspired to confine, sadden and frustrate us.

One night at home we happened upon a show on the Travel Channel called "Accessible Adventures." It showcased disabled travelers, some of whom globe-trotted on Segways, two-wheeled, electronic personal transportation vehicles. The travelers cruised happily and effortlessly over cobblestones in Italy and dirt roads in Thailand. One of the vacationers had a spinal-cord injury similar to mine.

I knew little about these curious machines, but was excited at the possibilities.

Amy and I drove to the Pacifica Segway dealership. The salesmen floated around the showroom, balancing steadily on two wheels. With assistance from the salesperson and my wife, I cautiously mounted one. It rocked erratically back and forth, but after a few seconds, both the machine and I settled down. Amy also got on one, and we went for a test drive. My legs quickly tired, but it was exhilarating--this was the closest to walking I had been in 4 1/2 years.

We bought one on the spot and shelved the wheelchair. The Segway became an extension of me. Physical and psychological benefits were quickly apparent. Spending more time upright, my balance and strength improved, even off the Segway. Rushing across campus with the wind in my face, I was running. Standing tall on the Segway, nobody could even tell I had a handicap.

However, something insidious was also occurring: unfriendly looks, laughing and mocking. It wasn't long before the first time I was asked to get off the Segway. A cafeteria security guard walked up to me and said, "You can't use that in here." I had to explain my handicap, and he apologized.

The next day, a woman shouted at me: "You need to get off that RIGHT NOW! You can't have that in here. I already called security." She walked away, but I angrily chased after her. A shouting match ensued. I yelled, "Do you say the same thing to people in wheelchairs? 'Excuse me, sir, but I'm afraid you might run over my feet. Could you please get up and walk?'"

Interrupting, she asked, "How am I supposed to know that you're disabled? You don't look disabled." She approached my colleagues: "Is he really handicapped?" As they nodded their heads, I lost it. "What's your name?" I shouted. "Show me your badge. Shame on you! Shame on you! Shame on you!" She hurried away with her head down.

After cooling down, but still in a bad mood, I reflected on the confrontation and grudgingly began to consider putting a handicapped sticker on the front of my Segway. Not wanting to advertise my disability, I procrastinated. However, the harassment only intensified. People yelled at me from their cars: "Use your legs!" "Hey, Segway dork--why don't you walk?"

One weekend we went shopping. A mall security guard quickly zeroed in on us and asked me to leave. I explained my situation, and he radioed his supervisor. Amy and I continued shopping but apparently had become fugitives. Two security guards followed us, feverishly talking on their radios: "They are heading north toward Crate & Barrel!" A plainclothes supervisor intercepted us and said: "Do you have a note from a doctor?"

I then forcefully tugged my right hand off the handle bar and induced a rapid spasm that made the guard's face cringe. He radioed back to base, "I don't think this guy is faking it." Then he apologized to me and said, "Perhaps I could offer you free parking."

I could no longer stand the constant confrontations, and reluctantly taped a bright blue handicapped logo squarely on the front of my Segway. I thought that people would see the logo and understand that I was not just some lazy rich guy. But I was wrong.

Sept. 1, 2007. Cal versus Tennessee at Memorial Stadium. Just as I was approaching the gate, something hit me square in the back, and my Segway surged forward. I pulled back hard to brake and the Segway luckily kept its balance. I turned around to see a group of fratty guys walking away, laughing and high-fiving. Incredulous and somewhat frightened, I sped after them, yelling, "Why did you push me in the back?"

"I wanted to see if it could, like, really balance," one replied. I told him that I could have been seriously hurt if I had fallen. "Sorry, dude."

Fortunately, since then I have experienced somewhat fewer insults and attacks. I have adjusted to the looks to a certain extent, although they still bother Amy. People are curious, and the Segway has also become a conversation piece in a way the wheelchair never could.

Sometimes, people come up to me just to say that the Segway is cool. Others are curious about how it works. I hope that more people, able-bodied and disabled, adopt and accept the Segway as an alternative mobility device. Until then, I have a simple plea: Please don't push me off my Segway.

Announcements: March 6, 2008

Bruce R. Rosen, MD, PhD, to Speak on Bio-X Frontiers in Interdisciplinary Biosciences: March 13th at 4:15 PM in the Clark Center Auditorium. Bruce R. Rosen, MD, PhD, will deliver a seminar entitled "Frontiers in Multimodal Brain Imaging"; please see his abstract below. Dr. Rosen is the director of the Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging at Massachusetts General Hospital and Professor of Radiology at Harvard Medical School.

Abstract:
The last decade has witnessed an explosion in the growth of our ability to study the workings of the brain. While the tools of molecular biology, neurochemistry, and electrophysiology continue to provide insights into neuronal events at the molecular, synaptic, and cellular levels, a new generation of non-invasive imaging tools has allowed us to extend this understanding from the cellular to the systems level, and from animal models to humans. One technology of particular note was the development of several means to image hemodynamic and metabolic events non-invasively using magnetic resonance. Coupled with advanced methods to quantify the morphological characteristics of cortical and subcortical structures, these "functional magnetic resonance imaging" (fMRI) studies have enabled investigators throughout the world to have an unprecedented view into the workings of the human brain and mind. Systems neuroscientists have applied these methods to map in detail the organization of human vision, hearing, smell, taste, touch, and motor control, and to directly address how our brains are both similar to and different from animal ancestors. Cognitive scientists have extended our understanding to higher order processing of functions like memory and attention, and they have begun detailed studies of distinctly human functions such as language. Scientists in fields as diverse as education and economics now use the tools of functional neuroimaging, and such studies have become powerful cultural icons in connecting the brain with behavior.

Though technological innovation was rapid during the last decade, it is certain to continue at an even more accelerated pace during the next. PET technology will continue to be the dominant means to obtain molecular imaging data, and will provide a direct neurochemical view into the synapse, with and without pharmacological interventions. MRI technology will also advance, and include ever-higher field strength magnets already approaching 12 Tesla. Such systems will allow us to study the building blocks of cortical organization, and permit us to directly map connections between functional regions. New technologies will also emerge, including direct tomographic imaging with light (Diffuse Optical Tomography--DOT) and novel means to combine MRI with electromagnetic recordings acquired with EEG and its magnetic cousin, MEG (magnetoencepholography). These technologies will extend our ability to capture views of brain function in "real time" in all patient populations, including small children, and they will ultimately allow us to test directly new computational and physical models of how the brain works, grows, and is perturbed in disease.

For more information, please contact Fiona Sincock.

Announcements III: March 5, 2008

"Movie Sequence" at Lucas: "The Third Man," Wednesday, March 5th, around 6 PM in the Lucas Learning Center.

"The Third Man"
(1949) British film noir, voted Best British film of all time . . . .
Director: Carol Reed
Screenplay: by Graham Greene
Starring: Joseph Cotten, Alida Valli, and Orson Welles
Place: Austria's capital city, Vienna
Time: Just after the Second World War when the city was divided into four zones controlled by the Allied powers of Great Britain, France,
the USA, and the USSR. For a movie synopsis, please access http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Third_Man.

"In Italy, for thirty years under the Borgias, they had warfare,
terror, murder, bloodshed--they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da
Vinci, and the Renaissance. In Switzerland, they had brotherly love,
they had five hundred years of democracy and peace, and what did that
produce? The cuckoo clock."

Please join us!
Erika, Chardonnay, and Ulrich

For the "Movie Sequence" online calendar, please visit
http://www.google.com/calendar/embed?src=movie.sequence%40gmail.com&ctz=A

Announcements II: March 5, 2008

RecycleMania: January 27th through April 5th the Competition Continues between Stanford and 400 Campuses around the Country (www.recyclemaniacs.org).

By recycling, you help to

create jobs,

spur investment from the private sector,

promote economic growth, and

support innovation

(all that,
just by
recycling).

From Julie Muir of PSSI/Stanford Recycling:
"Stanford is placing in the Top 10 in most categories and beating Harvard and Yale (except notable total waste produced #84 out of 89-- ouch!). If we could just recycle 10 more pounds of recyclables per person, we could take on the top five schools in the Per Capita Recycling Contest--check your garbage bin! Take a look at the results for the California competition--I think you will be impressed!"

Want to see the RecycleMania results for yourself? New results are posted each Friday. Click here http://recyclemaniacs.org/results.aspx#whole

What's recyclable on campus? Click here: http://recycling.stanford.edu/recycling/acceptable.html

Want a desktop recycling tray? See one here: http://recycling.stanford.edu/recycling/other.html

Want someone to come to your department or hall/house to talk about the campus recycling program? Email juliem@pssi.stanford.edu

Want more information on Special Event Recycling? Click here: http://recycling.stanford.edu/specialevent/seindex.html

Want to learn more about how recycling at Stanford reduces GHG emissions, energy use, and pollution? Click here:
http://recycling.stanford.edu/5r/benefits.html

Announcements I: March 5, 2008

Professor Lucio Frydman to Give Talk Entitled: "NMR and MRI Applications of Spatially Encoded Ultrafast Spectroscopy": Friday, March 7th, from 11:15 AM to Noon in the Lucas Learning Center. Dr. Frydman is from the Weizman Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel.

Pizza will be served after Dr. Frydman's presentation. For more information, please contact Betsy Sowder.

Announcements: March 3, 2008

Dr. Alexej Jerschow to Deliver Talk Entitled "23Na and 1H CEST MRI: Contrast in Cartilage and Intervertebral Disc": Friday, March 7th, at 10:00 AM in the Clark Center Auditorium. Associate Professor Alexej Jerschow, from the Department of Chemistry at New York University (NYU), will be visiting Stanford on March 7th to give a talk on his novel work at high field. He will be visiting the Lucas Center afterwards to see our facilities and to meet our scientists over lunch. For more information, please see his abstract below and/or contact Dr. Garry Gold.

ABSTRACT:
Glycosaminogycan (GAG) plays numerous vital functions in the human body. GAG concentration [GAG] in vivo is a sensitive biomarker indicative of both osteoarthritis (OA) and intervertebral disc (IVD) degenerative diseases. By exploiting the exchangeable protons of GAG, we demonstrate that one can directly map the localized GAG concentration in vivo using a chemical exchange saturation transfer (CEST) method. This gagCEST approach is presented on both human cartilage and animal discs. We also show the observation of the Nuclear Overhauser Effect (NOE) from macromolecules in tissue, which contributes significantly to the CEST/MT contrast mechanism in MRI and may lead to further diagnostic abilities. GAG contrast may also be enhanced by employing intermolecular multiple-quantum coherences.

Monitoring the bound sodium pool can be an important tool for assessing the onset of tissue disorders. Practical clinical 23Na MRI methods, furthermore, often do not allow one to use sufficiently small voxel sizes such that only the tissue of interest is seen, and a large signal contamination can arise from sodium in synovial fluid. Methods are presented for the clean separation between the signal from bound or ordered 23Na over that of free 23Na, which is particularly important and can greatly enhance the potential of 23Na-MRI as a diagnostic tool. 23Na MRI also offers the possibility of monitoring local anisotropic motion. 3T and 7T in vivo volumetric 23Na images are presented. Monitoring GAGs via 23Na or CEST can also be important for assessing heart valves or corneae.

References:
W. Ling, R. R. Regatte, G. Navon, A. Jerschow, Assessment of Glycosaminoglycan Concentration in Vivo by Chemical Exchange Saturation Transfer (gagCEST). Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. USA, in press 2008, http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/abstract/0707666105v1.

W. Ling, R. R. Regatte, M. E. Schweitzer, A. Jerschow. Characterization of Bovine Patellar Cartilage by NMR. NMR Biomed., in press 2008, http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/abstract/114294661/ABSTRACT.

New Staff Hires and Promotions: March 3, 2008

Bonita Crabbe has been the administrative associate for Dr. Gambhir since November of 2006. Prior to working at Stanford, Ms. Crabbe was the senior secretary for the 3M Company in Milpitas, California, and in Minnesota. She has also worked as an executive secretary to the superintendent and board of trustees in an elementary school district in Millbrae, California. In addition, Ms. Crabbe's employment experience includes working for more than a decade at a major airline at the San Francisco airport, where she enjoyed fantastic travel experiences including Tahiti, Hawaii, Mexico, Jamaica, Nassau, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Northern Europe, the Greek Islands, and the Cayman Islands. The oldest of four children and a fourth generation Norwegian, Ms. Crabbe grew up in Minnesota, enjoying Scandinavian crafts and family traditions, including lutefisk and lefse. In high school, she was inducted into the National Honor Society and was the editor of the school year book. Ms. Crabbe attended the University of Minnesota, majoring in business and home economics. She received a Certified Professional Secretary Certificate (and a number of other certificates along the way) and became highly skilled at writing and reading shorthand. Ms. Crabbe has two adult children: Julie of Tiburon, California, and Scott of Salem, Oregon. Julie is the executive coordinator for the CFO of a San Francisco healthcare provider and proud "mom" of Zeke, a chocolate lab who weighs 120 pounds and thinks he is a lap dog even though he is as tall as a pony. Scott is the vice president of a commercial construction company and proud "dad" of his faithful companion, a lovable yellow lab named Harley. When she is not at work, Ms. Crabbe likes traveling, reading, crafts, sewing, garage sales, and street festivals. Her favorite trip was a cruise through the Greek Islands, with a day trip to the ancient city of Ephesus (now called Kusadasi) where archeologists have uncovered amazing ruins from New Testament times. Her tour included an outdoor concert in an ancient amphitheatre where the Apostle Paul preached some 2000 years ago. She also visited the Isle of Patmos, where the Apostle John lived in exile.

Awards and Honors: March 3, 2008

(Drs. Ganguly and Pelc)

Arundhuti (Arun) Ganguly, PhD, research associate, received an Honorable Mention Award for her poster entitled "On the Angular Distribution of Bremsstrahlung" at the 2008 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE) "Physics of Medical Imaging" Conference in San Diego in February of 2008. She co-authored this poster and an associated conference paper with Professor Norbert Pelc. Only five candidates were selected for this award out of 120 submissions. Working with Professors Rebecca Fahrig, PhD, and Norbert Pelc, PhD, Dr. Ganguly has been a research associate in Radiology since 2004. She has also received the Sylvia Sorkin Greenfield Co-Author Award for the Best Paper in Medical Physics (2005), and she was a co-recipient of the Young Investigator Award from the Association for Advancement of Medical Instrumentation (AAMI) in 2004. Prior to becoming a research associate, Dr. Ganguly was a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford working with Professors Fahrig and Pelc. Dr. Ganguly received her doctoral degree from the State University of New York (SUNY) Buffalo, New York, in physics. While at Stanford, she has participated in the development of a truly hybrid X-ray/MR system at Stanford. Her primary interest is in the development of image-guidance technologies for minimally invasive procedures. Her current research includes the development of imaging protocols using a C-arm CT system, the synthesis of novel targeted imaging contrast agents, and X-ray detector development work.