Advanced signal processing and MRI to assess cerebrovascular health in small vessel disease and dementia

痴呆症影响着全球超过4500万人，仅在英国每年就花费超过260亿英镑。没有有效的治疗方法。需要更清楚地了解潜在的异常，以开发有效的治疗方法。 血管功能障碍是阿尔茨海默病、小血管疾病和血管性痴呆的早期特征：脑血管反应性（CVR）、颅内血管搏动性、血脑屏障功能和间质液引流都是慢性受损的，并导致脑损伤。然而，每一个的贡献，以及它们发生的顺序导致病理，是未知的。 该项目将专注于开发先进的磁共振成像（MRI）方法，以测量CVR，脑脉动和小血管功能的其他方面，将这些映射到详细的结构脑图像上，以研究这些功能的变化如何导致脑损伤。更好的评估动态血管功能的方法对于研究几种常见疾病中脑损伤的发生至关重要。例如，需要更好的方法来确定心跳和呼吸对通过大脑的血液和脑脊液的脉动的影响，并将血管扩张与血流和脉动联系起来。 该学生将在包括医学物理学家，神经学家，神经科学家，图像分析师和统计学家在内的多学科团队中研究应用于人脑成像的先进而复杂的MRI和计算图像分析技术。学生将在志愿者和患者的持续研究中应用这些方法。学生将获得在志愿者和患者中研究MRI的实践经验。 在物理学，工程学，计算机科学或数学等定量学科的强大背景是必要的;在医学成像和神经科学的经验可能是有利的，但不是必需的。 博士学位由MRC资助，作为爱丁堡大学英国痴呆症研究所中心的一部分，为期3.5年，从2019年9月开始。英国痴呆症研究所是英国政府投资2.5亿英镑在6个英国中心进行痴呆症研究的机构。爱丁堡拥有一个充满活力的脑MRI研究社区，在小血管疾病，中风和痴呆症方面与英国和国际合作。

Dementia affects over 45 million people worldwide and costs over £26 billion per year in the UK alone. There are no effective treatments. A clearer understanding of the underlying abnormalities is needed to develop effective treatments. Vascular dysfunction is an early feature in Alzheimer's disease, small vessel disease, and vascular dementia: cerebrovascular reactivity (CVR), intracranial vessel pulsatility, blood-brain barrier function, and interstitial fluid drainage, are all chronically impaired, and lead to brain damage. However, the contribution of each, and the order in which they occur to cause the pathology, is unknown. This project will focus on developing advanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) methods to measure CVR, brain pulsatility and other aspects of small vessel function, mapping these onto detailed structural brain images to study how changes in these functions lead to brain damage. Better methods to assess dynamic vascular function are essential to study how brain damage occurs in several common diseases. For example, better methods to time the effect of heart beat and breathing on the pulsation of blood and cerebrospinal fluid through the brain, and to relate blood vessel dilation to blood flow and pulsation, are needed. The student will work on advanced and complex MRI and computational image analysis techniques as applied to human brain imaging in a multidisciplinary team including medical physicists, neurologists, neuroscientists, image analysts and statisticians. The student will apply these methods in ongoing studies of volunteers and patients. The student will gain practical experience of research MRI in volunteers and patients. A strong background in a quantitative subject such as physics, engineering, computer science or mathematics is necessary; experience in medical imaging and neuroscience may be advantageous but is not essential. The PhD is funded by the MRC as part of the UK Dementia Research Institute Centre at the University of Edinburgh, duration 3.5 years, starting by September 2019. The UK Dementia Research Institute is a £250 million Government investment in dementia research across 6 UK centres. Edinburgh has a vibrant brain MRI research community with excellent UK and international collaborations in small vessel disease, stroke and dementia.