Non-Invasive Approaches
Yolanda Ohene1
1University College London, London, United Kingdom

Synopsis

Emerging non-invasive imaging approaches have been developed to investigate aspects of the glymphatic system. Many of these techniques have potential as clinical tools to better understand the human glymphatic system in health and disease. In this lecture, I will review these emerging non-invasive techniques and how they have been applied to probe the glymphatic system.

Target Audience

Those with in an interest in:
  • Non-invasive approaches targeting the perivascular fluid movement, the aquaporin-4 water channels and the blood-CSF-barrier as key components of the glymphatic system.
  • Techniques that are sensitive to aspects of the glymphatic system with the potential scope of clinical translation.
  • Preliminary studies using non-invasive approaches to assess the human brain in health and disease.

Outcome/ Objectives

Attendees will better understand how to perform and interpret studies that use non-invasive techniques with the aim of probing particular aspects of the glymphatic system.

I will describe how non-invasive techniques, in particular arterial spin labelling (ASL) methods combined with contrast mechanisms such as diffusion-weighting and relaxometry, can be used to assess various key components of the glymphatic system including the perivascular fluid movement, the aquaporin-4 water channels and the blood-CSF-barrier.

Finally, I will summarise the progress made in implementing these non-invasive approaches in human studies, with a focus on neurodegenerative diseases.

Acknowledgements

No acknowledgement found.

References

No reference found.
Proc. Intl. Soc. Mag. Reson. Med. 28 (2020)