Diagnostic and Functional Neuroradiology

Abstract

Recent technological advances have had a major impact on hardware and software used in the neurosciences leading to the development of highly sophisticated magnetic resonance (MR) sequences and image processing techniques closely correted to neuronal activity (functional MNR with BOLD contrast, fMRI; Diffusion MR, DWI-DTI). These imaging procedures disclose eloquent cortical brain areas and their respective connecting pathways (mediated by bundles of white matter fibres) allowing a better correlation in clinical practice between functional impairment and brain lesion. This has transformed MR from a scanning technique offering purely morphological information on brain pathology ( dysfunctional neuroradiology) into functional neuroradiology. In the wake of functional neuroradiology research confined to physiological investigation, the new technique is now an important tool in the field of neurorehabilitation and neuropharmacology, pre-surgical mapping and the study of post-lesional plasticity. Pre-surgical planning is used not only for cerebral tumours but also for epilepsy surgery and interventional neuroradiological procedures for which fMRI and DTI findings may yield useful information on brain hemispheric dominance and the mechanisms responsible for the reorganization of brain functions.