Three-Tesla Magnetic Resonance Imaging of Patients With Deep Brain Stimulators: Results From a Phantom Study and a Pilot Study in Patients
Dr. Graham has research interests in neuromodulation techniques and in particular, the use of deep brain stimulation (DBS). Analogous to cardiac pacemakers, DBS implants are being increasingly used to treat various neurological and psychiatric conditions when other options, such as drugs, are not working for patients. In collaboration with SRI investigators Drs. Nir Lipsman and Clement Hamani, Dr. Graham is exploring how to conduct MRI research on DBS patients in a safe manner. These experiments will help to unravel how DBS devices achieve their treatment effect, towards advancing the technology and improving healthcare delivery for patients.
Dr. Graham’s research in this area is currently funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. A substantial component of the work involves a technique called “parallel radiofrequency transmission (PTX)”. Dr. Graham and his team recently showed that pTx MRI enables imaging of DBS implants without introducing localized heating that can be potentially dangerous in the brain. A number of projects are underway to build MRI hardware and software for such pTx MRI applications.
More details on this research application can be found in the following Scientia Article.
Recent Publications
Davidson B, Giacobbe P, George TP, Nestor SM, Rabin JS, Goubran M, Nyman AJ, Baskaran A, Meng Y, Pople CB, Graham SJ, Tam F, Hamani C, Lipsman N. Mol Psychiatry. 2022 Oct;27(10):3992-4000. doi: 10.1038/s41380-022-01677-6. Epub 2022 Jul 21. PMID: 35858989
Davidson B, Tam F, Yang B, Meng Y, Hamani C, Graham SJ, Lipsman N. Neurosurgery. 2021 Jan 13;88(2):349-355. doi: 10.1093/neuros/nyaa439. PMID: 33045736
Arianpouya M, Yang B, Tam F, Davidson B, Hamani C, Lipsman N, Graham SJ, Advances in Neurology and Neuroscience Research Volume 2 Article ID: 100012 DOI: 10.51956/ANNR.100012 Page 1 of 23 Volume 2, Article ID: 100012
McElcheran CE, Golestanirad L, Iacono MI, Wei PS, Yang B, Anderson KJT, Bonmassar G, Graham SJ. Sci Rep. 2019 Feb 14;9(1):2124. doi: 10.1038/s41598-018-38099-w. PMID: 30765724
Davidson et al. X-ray image illustrating the electrode/extension configuration used at our institution for the purpose of decreasing MRI-related heating. Each electrode is looped once about its respective burr hole. Further excess wire is coiled deep to the IPG.