MRI study makes key discovery

A new piece of research carried out at the University of Nottingham has claimed to have made a key discovery which it states could give the medical world a new tool for the improved diagnosis and monitoring of neuro-degenerative diseases like multiple sclerosis.

World-leading experts in Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) from the university's Sir Peter Mansfield Magnetic Resonance Centre found why images of the brain produced using the latest MRI techniques are so sensitive to the direction in which nerve fibres run.

Research fellow Dr Samuel Wharton explained how the study focused on "healthy human volunteers and modelling of the myelin sheath shows that much more detailed microscopic information relating to the size and direction of nerve fibres can be generated using fairly simple imaging techniques".

He explained how this is going to give clinicians more context in which to recognise and identify lesions or abnormalities in the brain, which it is claimed will also help them to tailor different types of scan to a particular patient.

The centre at the university where the research was carried out was named after Sir Peter Mansfield, who won the Nobel Prize for Medicine.

Find the nearest Barchester care home.