ISMRM - Nikola Stikov

Q&A with Kelly McPhee and Alan Wilman

By Atef Badji and Nikola Stikov

Alan Wilman (Left) and Kelly McPhee (Right)

Among the Editor’s picks for May comes a paper from the department of Physics at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada. In their work entitled ‘Transverse relaxation and flip angle mapping: Evaluation of simultaneous and independent methods using multiple spin echoes’, Kelly McPhee and Alan Wilman evaluated transverse relaxation (T2) and flip angle maps derived from Bloch simulations and Extended Phase Graphs (EPG). We conducted this interview with Kelly on a beautiful Sunday afternoon at the Honolulu convention center during the annual ISMRM meeting.

26 May 2017, 10:37 PDT|Categories: Highlights-post, Highlights-QA|Tags: Atef Badji, B1, Bloch simulation, Extended Phase Graph, Flip angle mapping, Nikola Stikov, Transverse relaxation|

Q&A with Davide Piccini and Matthias Stuber

By Agâh Karakuzu

In this April’s Editor’s pick, pieces from previous Highlights features are coming together. About a year ago Dr. Davide Piccini foreshadowed their collaborative study with NYU to incorporate XD-GRASP into their work on free-breathing motion correction. Seems like it was a productive year for Davide, as he not only delivered on his research promise, but also became a father. The Highlights team extends their sincerest congratulations to the Piccini family! We spoke to Davide and senior author, Prof. Matthias Stuber from the University of Lausanne, about their recent paper on Four Dimensional Respiratory Motion-Resolved Coronary MR Angiography.

14 April 2017, 07:43 PDT|Categories: Highlights-post, Highlights-QA|Tags: Agah Karakuzu, Angiography, Heart Coronary MR, Nikola Stikov, Respiratory Motion|

Q&A with Nara Higano, Andrew Hahn and Jason Woods

BY NIKOLA STIKOV

NICU magnet – Jason Woods and Nara Higano

This month we are featuring a collaboration between the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, the Washington University in St. Louis and the University of Wisconsin – Madison. Nara Higano, Andrew Hahn, Jason Woods and colleagues used a converted orthopedic MRI scanner to measure tidal volume (the difference between lung volume in the inspired and expired state) in neonates. As you can imagine, we are talking small volumes here (on the order of tens of milliliters), and achieving this with 3D radial ultrashort echo-time (UTE) MRI is no small engineering feat that owes a great deal to some of the early MR projection reconstruction techniques.

24 March 2017, 05:46 PDT|Categories: Highlights-post, Highlights-QA|Tags: Bulk Motion, Nikola Stikov, Pulmonary UTE MRI|

Q&A with Melissa Terpstra and Gulin Öz

BY ADAM ELKHALED

In this edition of Highlights Q&A, we were treated to a virtual interview with Dr. Melissa Terpstra and Dr. Gülin Öz, whose work at the University of Minnesota Center for Magnetic Resonance Research (CMRR) has provided unique insight into the reproducibility of spectroscopic data. Our conversation revolved around their investigative efforts to understand how field strength influences consistent neurochemical quantification. By comparing short-echo semi-LASER data from 3T and 7T acquisitions, they managed to arrive at some interesting conclusions that bear direct relevance to other studies, and also underscore the necessity of quality assurance for purposes of clinical translation.

17 October 2016, 15:02 PDT|Categories: Highlights-post, Highlights-QA|Tags: Adam Elkhaled, Gulin Öz, Melissa Terpstra, Nikola Stikov, reliability, spectroscopy, ultra high field|

Q&A with Dongmei Wu and E. Mark Haacke

BY RYAN TOPFER & NIKOLA STIKOV

In this Highlights Q&A we chat with Dongmei Wu about her technique to reverse phase history through gradient moment nulling, and senior author E. Mark Haacke takes a moment to tell us the history behind “The Green Book”.

26 August 2016, 07:59 PDT|Categories: Highlights-post, Highlights-QA|Tags: Dongmei Wu, Mark Haacke, Nikola Stikov, Ryan Topfer, SWI, The Green Book|

Q&A with Jelle Veraart, Els Fieremans, and Dmitry Novikov

BY SAMANTHA BY

One of the editor’s picks for the month of July is a paper entitled “Gibbs Ringing in Diffusion MRI”. Recently, we talked with Drs. Jelle Veraart, Els Fieremans, and Dmitry Novikov to learn more about how they use regularization functions to mitigate artifacts induced by Gibbs ringing in diffusion MRI.

08 July 2016, 07:17 PDT|Categories: Highlights-post, Highlights-QA|Tags: diffusion, Dmitry Novikov, Els Fieremans, Jelle Veraart, Nikola Stikov, Samantha By|

Q&A with Eric Pierre and Mark Griswold

BY SUMEETH VIJAY JONATHAN & NIKOLA STIKOV

Magnetic Resonance Fingerprinting (MRF) was all the rage at the annual ISMRM meeting in Singapore, culminating with the Young Investigator Award (YIA) given to Dan Ma for her work on MRF music. Eric Pierre’s paper that we are highlighting in June provides the reconstruction framework that led to the YIA. The Highlights team interviewed Eric and senior author Mark Griswold.

24 June 2016, 03:50 PDT|Categories: Highlights-post, Highlights-QA|Tags: Eric Pierre, fingerprinting, Mark Griswold, MRF, Nikola Stikov, reconstruction, Sumeeth Vijay Jonathan|

Q&A with Yunkou Wu and Dean Sherry

BY BO ZHU & NIKOLA STIKOV

For the first Editor’s pick of June, Dr. Yunkou Wu and Prof. Dean Sherry from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center have developed a novel paraCEST agent seeking to push the envelope of robust pH quantification in-vivo. We spoke with them over Skype to discuss this new technique and its implications for the CEST field, as well as the broader MR community.

16 June 2016, 18:37 PDT|Categories: Highlights-post, Highlights-QA|Tags: Bo Zhu, CEST, Dean Sherry, Nikola Stikov, Yunkou Wu|

Q&A with Sebastiano Barbieri and Harriet Thoeny

BY JESSICA MCKAY

We sat down with Dr. Sebastiano Barbieri and Dr. Harriet Thoeny from Inselspital University Hospital to discuss their paper, “Impact of the Calculation Algorithm on Biexponential Fitting of Diffusion-Weighted MRI in Upper Abdominal Organs”. Sebastiano, who completed his Ph.D. at Jacobs University and the Fraunhofer Institute for Medical Image Computing in Germany, has a background in math and image processing. Harriet is a radiologist dedicated to urogenital and head and neck radiology with main research interest in functional MRI, and special focus on diffusion-weighted MRI. In their paper, they assess six different algorithms for fitting a biexponential IntraVoxel Incoherent Motion (IVIM) model.

26 May 2016, 22:06 PDT|Categories: Highlights-post, Highlights-QA|Tags: diffusion, Harriet Thoeny, IVIM, Jessica McKay, Nikola Stikov, Sebastiano Barbieri|

Q&A with Hojin Ha

BY MARIO MALAVÉ, SRI KOUNDINYAN, DAVID ZENG & NIKOLA STIKOV

Hojin Ha is currently a postdoctoral researcher at Linköping University in Sweden, working on developing 4D phase-contrast MRI (PC-MRI) techniques. His paper entitled “Multi-VENC Acquisition of Four-Dimensional Phase-Contrast MRI to Improve Precision of Velocity Field Measurement” was selected as an Editor’s pick for the month of May. The paper demonstrates a technique for improving the velocity signal of 4D PC-MRI, and the use of a 3D printed phantom for modeling the aortic valve. We caught up with Hojin to discuss his work and life in Sweden.

20 May 2016, 09:36 PDT|Categories: Highlights-post, Highlights-QA|Tags: David Zeng, flow, Hojin Ha, Mario Malave, Nikola Stikov, Sri Prabu Koundinyan, velocity|