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SPECTROSCOPY BY MAGNETIC RESONANCE
The spectral analysis that we can get using a MR is very basic, but the obtained data is a very useful source of information if it is properly
processed. With the conventional equipment the cuantification is relative, and the relative cuantification is subject to errors that can be
important in the clinical scope. Therefore, the absolute quantification is a goal to which to aspire, beyond the scope of the investigation.
With a team made up by doctors, engineers and chemicals, we are trying to design a system able to quantify in absolute terms metabolites of interest
(N-acetil-aspartate, choline, creatine, etc.) applicable in any clinical environment and, in last instance, to settle down correlations between
this quantification and the different pathological processes.
The process of obtaining the spectral data requires the design of a system to pick up and process the data obtained from the MR raw data, creating
from the beginning algorithms of analysis of those data to obtain demographic data of the patients, initial parameters of the spectrum, spectral data,
times. The first thing to be done is to create diverse algorithms, that should be integrable with database applications. Thus we will create the
main database, that will be completed with pathological data from the patients.
The spectrums will be obtained from the MR in its daily tasks, because these are the circumstances under which our system will be useful.
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But with the purpose of collating results we have to establish a metabolic normality pattern, reason why we will perform spectrums to volunteers
with certain characteristics of normality.
Later, the analysis of the obtained signals begins, from the standard model and from the different patient's data. The spectral analysis consists
of designing filters, algorithms, arithmetical combinations and other signal processing tasks to establish correlations between them and to standarize
them; this will allow us to design a robust algorithm of spectrum analysis and metabolites quantification.
In Spain similar works have been performed, and from some of them there have been created small algorithms of spectrums analysis that have been
joined with other ones created in other countries. But none of them is complemented with studies in depth directly in the hospital, with real data
from more than 20 patients and, in any case, with absolute quantification.
The project tries to perform a study based on a wider sample, using different tools and working with several teams from different disciplines. We
are even going to try to design a normality pattern, from the point of view of the metabolic measurement described in the project, on which the
correlations will be developed.
In the Region of Murcia the little that has been done in this field was performed by one of the collaborators of our project, Dr. Garcia Santos, one of
the best specialists of Neuroradiology. He thinks that it is neccesary to make an ambitious project that comes to solve a series of problems in the
quantification of metabolites.
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