Alterations of human electroencephalographic activity caused by multiple extremely low frequency magnetic field exposures

In the past, many studies have claimed that extremely low frequency (ELF) magnetic field (MF) exposures could alter the human electroencephalographic (EEG) activity. This study aims at extending our ELF pilot study to investigate whether MF exposures at ELF in series from 50, 16.66, 13, 10, 8.33 to 4 Hz could alter relative power within the corresponding EEG bands. 33 human subjects were tested under a double-blind and counter-balanced conditions. The multiple repeated three-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) mixed design (within and between-subject) analysis was employed followed by post-hoc t-tests and Bonferroni alpha-correction. The results from this study have shown that narrow alpha1 (7.5–9.5 Hz) and alpha2 (9–11 Hz) bands, associated with 8.33 and 10 Hz MF exposures, were significantly (p < 0.0005) lower than control over the temporal and parietal regions within the 10–16 min of first MF exposure session and the MF exposures were significantly higher than control of the second session MF exposure (60–65 min from the commencement of testing). Also, it was found that the beta1 (12–14 Hz) band exhibited a significant increase from before to after 13-Hz first MF exposure session at frontal region. The final outcome of our result has shown that it is possible to alter the human EEG activity of alpha and beta bands when exposed to MF at frequencies corresponding to those same bands, depending on the order and period of MF conditions. This type of EEG synchronisation of driving alpha and beta EEG by alpha and beta sinusoidal MF stimulation, demonstrated in this study, could possibly be applied as therapeutic treatment(s) of particular neurophysiological abnormalities such as sleep and psychiatric disorders.     

Nootropic correction of disturbances in learning and memory caused by superhigh frequency electromagnetic radiation

Superhigh frequency electromagnetic radiation of low intensity produces retrograde amnesia in rats tested for passive avoidance conditioning. Oxiracetam and aniracetam completely prevent the amnestic action of electromagnetic radiation, while nooglutil, piracetam, and centrophenoxine markedly weaken it. It is postulated that pyrrolidone-derived nootropics can be used for the pharmacological correction of disturbances in learning and memory caused by superhigh frequency electromagnetic radiation. Translated fromByulleten' Eksperimental'noi Biologii i Meditsiny, Vol. 118, N ^o 12, pp. 606–608, December, 1994 Presented by P. V. Sergeev, Member of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences     

Reproducibility of whole‐brain temperature mapping and metabolite quantification using proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy

Assessing brain temperature can provide important information about disease processes (e.g., stroke, trauma) and therapeutic effects (e.g., cerebral hypothermia treatment). Whole‐brain magnetic resonance spectroscopic imaging (WB‐MRSI) is increasingly used to quantify brain metabolites across the entire brain. However, its feasibility and reliability for estimating brain temperature needs further validation. Therefore, the present study evaluates the reproducibility of WB‐MRSI for temperature mapping as well as metabolite quantification across the whole brain in healthy volunteers. Ten healthy adults were scanned on three occasions 1 week apart. Brain temperature, along with four commonly assessed brain metabolites—total N‐acetyl‐aspartate (tNAA), total creatine (tCr), total choline (tCho) and myo‐inositol (mI)—were measured from WB‐MRSI data. Reproducibility was evaluated using the coefficient of variation (CV). The measured mean (range) of the intra‐subject CVs was 0.9% (0.6%‐1.6%) for brain temperature mapping, and 4.7% (2.5%‐15.7%), 6.4% (2.4%‐18.9%) and 14.2% (4.4%‐52.6%) for tNAA, tCho and mI, respectively, with reference to tCr. Consistently larger variability was found when using H₂O as the reference for metabolite quantifications: 7.8% (3.3%‐17.8%), 7.8% (3.1%‐18.0%), 9.8% (3.7%‐31.0%) and 17.0% (5.9%‐54.0%) for tNAA, tCr, tCho and mI, respectively. Further, the larger the brain region (indicated by a greater number of voxels within that region), the better the reproducibility for both temperature and metabolite estimates. Our results demonstrate good reproducibility of whole‐brain temperature and metabolite measurements using the WB‐MRSI technique.     

Reliability of water proton chemical shift temperature calibration for focused ultrasound ablation therapy

Our purpose in this work was to assess the reliability of the calibration coefficient for magnetic resonance water proton chemical shift temperature mapping. Over a six month period, the calibration coefficient was measured 15 times in several different phantoms. A highly linear relationship between water proton chemical shift and temperature change was found. The average temperature calibration coefficient determined from all studies was 0.009+/-0.001 ppm/degrees C. Four of the 15 studies were conducted on the same day using the same phantom. The average temperature calibration coefficient of these four studies was 0.0096+/-0.0001 ppm/degrees C.     

Correction for intensity falloff in surface coil magnetic resonance imaging

A method has been developed to compensate for sensitivity variation in surface coil images. An algorithm to derive the surface coil profile by acquiring a crude body coil image of the region under study is presented and tested using a homogeneous phantom. Practical application is demonstrated on images of a tomato and rabbit acquired with a 2 T 33-cm bore magnetic resonance imager/spectrometer.     

Correction of phase wrapping in magnetic resonance imaging

In phase reconstruction MR imaging, e.g., for velocity measurement, phase shifts beyond +/- pi radians will "wrap around" to smaller apparent phases. Such large phase shifts could arise either due to large background (non-flow-related) phase variations or due to large velocity-induced phase shifts. For sufficiently smooth phase variation, such discontinuities can be automatically recognized and corrected, thus restoring the correct phase values and extending the effective dynamic range of such phase imaging techniques.     

Application of proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy to phenol novolak: Chemical shift in pyridine of methylene protons of phenol novolaks

The NMR spectroscopy of cresols, benzylphenols, and di-, tri-, and tetra-nuclear phenolformaldehyde condensates using pyridine as solvent proved that their methyl or methylene groups which have ortho-phenolic hydroxyl groups show their signals at much lower τ-values as compared with those compounds having no ortho-phenolic hydroxyl groups. Thus, the signals of ortho-ortho, ortho-para, and para-para methylene types in novolak compounds could be separately observed in pyridine solution. Due to this specific properties of pyridine as NMR solvent, various phenol novolak resins could be characterized according to their modes of methylene links.     

Rapid identification of common human pathogens by high-resolution proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy.

Routine procedures for recovery of bacteria from clinical specimens involve culturing the latter on various nonselective and selective agar media. The bacteria are then identified by means of biochemical and immunological test procedures. Reduction of the time required to identify the bacteria is highly desirable for rapid clinical diagnosis. Towards this end the potential of proton nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy for providing a "fingerprint" within the proton spectrum of five bacterial genera, reflecting their characteristic cell wall constituents, has been investigated. Establishing a database of high-resolution proton NMR spectra of a large number of bacterial species is a prerequisite for attaining this objective. A database has been established for five common human pathogens: Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aureus, and Enterococcus faecalis. On the basis of the presence of characteristic resonances in their spectra, a simple algorithm has been developed to differentiate and identify these microorganisms. The NMR spectra of E. coli and S. aureus showed no dependency on the type of growth medium, growth density, or incubation time.     

Absolute quantification of carnosine in human calf muscle by proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy

Carnosine has been shown to be present in the skeletal muscle and in the brain of a variety of animals and humans. Despite the various physiological functions assigned to this metabolite, its exact role remains unclear. It has been suggested that carnosine plays a role in buffering in the intracellular physiological pHi range in skeletal muscle as a result of accepting hydrogen ions released in the development of fatigue during intensive exercise. It is thus postulated that the concentration of carnosine is an indicator for the extent of the buffering capacity. However, the determination of the concentration of this metabolite has only been performed by means of muscle biopsy, which is an invasive procedure. In this paper, we utilized proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1H MRS) in order to perform absolute quantification of carnosine in vivo non-invasively. The method was verified by phantom experiments and in vivo measurements in the calf muscles of athletes and untrained volunteers. The measured mean concentrations in the soleus and the gastrocnemius muscles were found to be 2.81 +/- 0.57/4.8 +/- 1.59 mM (mean +/- SD) for athletes and 2.58 +/- 0.65/3.3 +/- 0.32 mM for untrained volunteers, respectively. These values are in agreement with previously reported biopsy-based results. Our results suggest that 1H MRS can provide an alternative method for non-invasively determining carnosine concentration in human calf muscle in vivo.     

低频交变磁场安全性的研究

目的：本文研究50Hz交变磁场对小鼠骨髓嗜多染红细胞（PCE）微核率和血象的影响。材料和方法：用50Hz交变磁场作用于小鼠,每天4小时,10天后检测小鼠骨髓嗜多染红细胞微核率和血液学指标。结果：表明经强度为10mT的低频交变磁场作用10天后的小鼠微核率与阴性对照组比较无显著性差异,而强度为15mT的实验组较阴性对照组微核率有明显增高（P＜0．05）,较阳性对照组仍有显著性差异（P＜0．01）,10mT和15mT的实验组的红细胞数均有明显改变,但白细胞数明显下降（P＜0．05）。结论：提示当小鼠受到15mT交变磁场作用时,可使细胞微核率增加,可能会致突变。     

Monitoring cytotoxic tumour treatment response by diffusion magnetic resonance imaging and proton spectroscopy

Exposure of tumours to anti-cancer drugs, gene or radiation therapy consistently leads to an increase in water diffusion in the cases expressing favourable treatment response. The diffusion change coincides cytotoxic cell eradication and precedes volume reduction in drug or gene therapy-treated experimental tumours. Interestingly, the recent studies from human brain tumour patients undergoing chemotherapy show similar behaviour of diffusion, suggesting important application for MRI in patient management. In this review observations from diffusion MRI and MRS in the tumours during cytotoxic treatment are summarized and the cellular mechanisms affecting molecular mobility are discussed in the light of tissue microenvironmental and microdynamic changes.     

不同材料金属烤瓷冠磁共振成像伪影的比较

背景：口腔内有金属烤瓷冠的患者在进行磁共振成像检查时会形成伪影,但是在临床方面鲜见有关不同材料金属烤瓷冠在磁共振成像形成伪影的定量报道。 目的：研究不同材料金属烤瓷冠在FSE T2WI序列中磁共振成像伪影的大小。 方法：在核磁室收集需做磁共振成像检查且有右下颌第一磨牙烤瓷冠修复的患者48例,分为镍铬合金烤瓷冠组、钴铬合金烤瓷冠组及纯钛烤瓷冠组。采用1.5T MRI扫描仪对所有患者进行FSE T2WI扫描,观察同一序列不同材料金属烤瓷冠患者成像伪影的大小。 结果与结论：选择金属修复体边界出现清晰的弧形高信号环带且可进行测量的样本共45例,每种材料各15例。不同材料的金属烤瓷冠患者在同一序列产生的伪影大小不同,镍铬合金烤瓷冠组、钴铬合金烤瓷冠组和纯钛烤瓷冠组的伪影分别为(321.67±33.29),(263.53±34.95),(143.67±31.13) mm²,3组间两两比较差异均有显著性意义(P < 0.05)。表明3种临床常用的金属烤瓷冠修复材料中,纯钛烤瓷冠形成的伪影最小,镍铬合金烤瓷冠伪影最大。中国组织工程研究杂志出版内容重点：生物材料;骨生物材料; 口腔生物材料; 纳米材料; 缓释材料; 材料相容性;组织工程全文链接：     

High-resolution proton nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy of ovarian cyst fluid

Most ovarian tumors are cystic structures containing variable amounts of fluid. Several studies of ovarian cyst fluid focus on one specific metabolite using conventional assay systems. We examined the potential of (1)H-nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy in evaluation of the overall metabolic composition of cyst fluid from different ovarian tumors. Ovarian cyst fluid samples obtained from 40 patients with a primary ovarian tumor (12 malignant and 28 benign) were examined. After deproteinization and pD standardization, we performed (1)H-NMR spectroscopy on a 600 MHz instrument. With (1)H-NMR spectroscopy we found detectable concentrations of 36 metabolites with high intersample variation. A number of unassigned resonances as well as unexpected metabolites were found. We introduce an overall inventory of the low-molecular-weight metabolites in ovarian cyst fluid with corresponding resonances. Significant differences in concentration (p < 0.01) were found for several metabolites (including an unknown metabolite) between malignant and benign ovarian cysts. Furthermore, higher concentrations in malignant- and lower in benign fluids were found compared to normal serum values, indicating local cyst wall metabolic processes in case of malignant transformation. We conclude that (1)H-nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy can give an overview of low-molecular-weight proton-containing metabolities present in ovarian cyst fluid samples. The metabolic composition of cyst fluid differs significantly between benign and malignant ovarian tumors. Furthermore, differences between benign subgroups possibly related to histopathological behaviour can be detected. The presence of N-acetyl aspartic acid and 5-oxoproline exclusively in serous cystadenoma samples is remarkable. Future studies will concentrate on these findings and explore the possibilities of extrapolating information from the in vitro studies to in vivo practice, in which metabolic differences between malignant and benign subtypes can be of great importance in a pre-operative phase.     

Evaluation of proton density by magnetic resonance imaging: phantom experiments and analysis of multiple component proton transverse relaxation

The quantitative evaluation of proton density by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is limited as a result of non-uniformities in the intensity distribution of the images and by the fact that only part of the protons of the tissue contribute to the image signal. This study was undertaken to estimate the accuracy of proton density measurements using a standard whole-body MR imager operating at 1.5 T. First, phantom experiments were performed to examine the possibility of an intensity correction. For the test phantom the systematical errors in the computed proton densities were reduced from 5 to 1% after correction. Secondly, proton transverse relaxation curves of biological tissues were measured in vitro on an MR spectrometer. A multi-exponential analysis of the data shows that for spin-echo times TE greater than 10 ms in total between 10 and 30% of the protons of the tissue do not contribute to the image signal. In all tissues a proton component with a free induction decay (FID) time T2* less than 32 microseconds was observed. In the time range TE greater than 10 ms two proton components can be distinguished in muscle and fatty tissue. Finally, it will be shown that a pixel-orientated two-exponential analysis of spin-echo images leads to a much more homogeneous density image than one-exponential computation, since tissue-specific biexponentiality and partial volume effects are taken into account. As a conclusion, the hydrogen density of biological tissues can be evaluated at best with an overall error of 10% from MR images for TE greater than 10 ms. This accuracy is insufficient for a pixel-orientated neutron therapy planning.     

Bone formation in polymeric scaffolds evaluated by proton magnetic resonance microscopy and X-ray microtomography

Magnetic resonance microscopy (MRM) and X-ray microtomography (XMT) were used to investigate de novo bone formation in porous poly(ethyl methacrylate) (PEMA) scaffolds, prepared by a novel co-extrusion process. PEMA scaffolds were seeded with primary chick calvarial osteoblasts and cultured under static conditions for up to 8 weeks. Bone formation within porous PEMA scaffolds was confirmed by the application of histologic stains to intact PEMA disks. Disks were treated with Alizarin red to visualize calcium deposits and with Sirius red to visualize regions of collagen deposition. DNA analysis confirmed that cells reached confluence on the scaffolds after 7 weeks in static culture. The formation of bone in PEMA scaffolds was investigated with water proton MRM. Quantitative MRM maps of the magnetization transfer ratio (MTR) yielded maps of protein deposition, and magnetic resonance (MR) relaxation times (T1 and T2) yielded maps of mineral deposition. The location of newly formed bone and local mineral concentrations were confirmed by XMT. By comparing MRM and XMT data from selected regions-of-interest in one sample, the inverse relationship between the MR relaxation times and mineral concentration was validated, and calibration curves for estimating the mineral content of cell-seeded PEMA scaffolds from quantitative MRM images were developed.     

磁共振主动式射频开关设计方法研究

目的:为避免磁共振成像（MRI）系统射频线圈的发射和接收两种工作模式发生耦合,对于短弛豫时间信号的采集,要求射频开关的切换时间应尽可能短。方法:在分析被动式MRI射频开关电路结构的基础上,采用PIN二极管设计了主动式MRI射频开关电路,由直流驱动电路控制PIN二极管的导通和截止实现射频开关的切换,从而达到对射频开关及其状态的主动控制,以缩短射频开关的切换时间。结果:采用电子设计自动化软件对射频开关电路的隔离度、插入损耗、电压驻波比等性能指标进行仿真分析,符合设计要求;通过示波器对由直流驱动电路和射频开关电路外接负载的端口波形进行分析,射频开关的切换速度达到预期目标。结论:基于PIN二极管的射频开关能够有效地缩短射频开关时间,具有良好的隔离度、插入损耗和噪声系数等性能。     

Brain metabolic alterations in Cushing's syndrome as monitored by proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy.

Proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy ((1)H MRS) was used to evaluate changes in cerebral metabolites in 13 patients with Cushing's syndrome (including seven with pituitary corticotroph adenomas and six with primary adrenal disease) as compared to 40 normal subjects. Data were recorded in the frontal, thalamic and temporal areas; quantification of the MRS signals demonstrated a statistically significant decrease of the Cho/Cr ratio in the frontal and thalamic areas but not in the temporal area for patients with Cushing's syndrome. The largest decrease in Cho/Cr was measured in the thalamic area of patients with a Cushing's syndrome secondary to an adrenal disease. No statistically significant changes in the NAA/Cr ratio were measured in any of the areas studied. These results suggest that the quantification of choline levels could be helpful for monitoring the cerebral metabolite alterations in patients with hypercortisolism.     

Study of stereoregularity of poly(vinyl ketone)s by proton nuclear magnetic resonance

Two poly(vinyl ketone)s, poly(methyl vinyl ketone) (PMVK) and poly(phenyl vinyl ketone) (PPVK), are isotacticly synthesized. The ¹H-NMR spectra of these polymers and of the meso and racemic model dimers help to determine the percentage of isotactic dyads using the area of the peaks of the non equivalent protons (H_A and H_B) of the β-methylene group of the chain. The difference between the chemical shifts of the H_B and H_B protons is exceptionally large (approximately 0,8 ppm for both isotactic PMVK and isotactic PPVK). The coupling constants and the β-CH₂ and the α-CH groups' frequencies are determined by applying the ABX₂ system. A spontaneous epimerization of isotactic PPVK is found; this is always accompanied by a degradation and leads to the assumption of a simultaneous photochemical reaction of the Norrish II type.