Sarah J. Nelson

Professor, Bioengineering and Radiology, UCSF Scientific Director, QB3, UCSF Director, Program in Bioengineering, UCSF Core Member, UCB/UCSF Graduate Group in Bioengineering 303 Byers Hall mailcode: Box 2532 415 476 6383 fax: 415 514 2550 This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it http://www.bioengineering.ucsf.edu/faculty-sarah_j_nelson.vp.html Membership effective July 1991

Research Interests

Magetic resonance imaging and spectroscopy; image processing; algorithm development.

Research Summary

The goal of my research program is to develop MR imaging and spectroscopy techniques that will allow the characterization of specific diseases and quantification of response to therapy in an individual patient through the use of sequential MR examinations. This is necessary because there are still many circumstances where conventional MRI is ambiguous or provides limited information concerning tissue function. Examples are in distinguishing recurrent tumor from necrosis or in identifying the extent of ischemic insult following a stroke or myocardial infarction. Results obtained using MR spectroscopic imaging have indicated that localized spectroscopy may be important for these applications as it can give new information that is valuable in elucidating the nature and spatial extent of regions with abnormal metabolic function. The clinical application of these techniques and integration of the results with data from conventional MRI requires the implementation of new approaches to data acquisition, as well as the development of image and signal processing algorithms for interpretation of the data. These techniques are currently being applied to patient populations with Multiple Sclerosis, brain tumors, and prostate cancer.

Selected Publications

Nelson SJ. Multivoxel magnetic resonance spectroscopy of brain tumors. Mol Can Therapeutics May 2(5):497-507, 2003.

Lee M, Pirzkall A, Akazawa P, Verhey LJ, Nelson SJ. MR spectroscopy of radiation effects in healthy brain tissue following radiotherapy. Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys 57(S):133-134, 2003

Oh J, Henry RG, Pirzkall A, Lu Y, Li X, Catalaa I, Chang S, Dillon WP, Nelson SJ. Survival analysis in patients with glioblastoma multiforme: predictive value of choline to N-acetylaspartate index, apparent diffusion coefficient and relative cerebral blood volume. J Magn Reson Imaging 19:546-554, 2004

Lee MC, Pirzkall A, McKnight T, Nelson SJ, 1H-MRSI of Radiation Effects in Normal-appearing white matter: dose-dependence and impact on automated spectral classification. J Magn Reson Imag. 19(4):379-388, 2004.

R. Hurd, S. Napapon, R. Srinivasan, D. Vigneron, D. Pelletier, S. Nelson, Measurement of Brain Glutamate using TE-averaged PRESS at 3T. Magn Reson Med, 51(3):435-440, 2004.

R. Srinivasan, D. Vigneron, S. Napapon, R. Hurd, N. SJ, Comparative study of Myo-inositol quantification using LC model at 1.5T and 3.0T with 3D 1H Proton Spectroscopic Imaging of the Human Brain. J Magn Reson Imaging 22(4):523-528, 2004.

Pirzkall, X. Li, J. Oh, S. Chang, M.S. Berger, M.W. McDermott, D.A. Larson, L.J. Verhey, W.P. Dillon, S.J. Nelson, “3D MR-Spectroscopy for Resected High-Grade Gliomas Prior to RT: Tumor Extent according to Metabolic Activity in Relation to MRI”, Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys 59(1):126-137, 2004.

Li X, Jin H, Lu Y, Oh J, Chang S, Nelson SJ. Identification of MRI and 1H MRSI parameters that may predict survival for patients with malignant gliomas. NMR Biomed, 17(1):10-20, 2004.

Oh J, Henry RG, Genain C, Nelson SJ, Pelletier D. Mechanisms of normal appearing corpus callosum injury related to pericallosal T1 lesions in multiple sclerosis using directional diffusion tensor and 1H MRS imaging. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry 75:1281-1286, 2004.

Oh J, Pelletier D, Nelson SJ, Preferential Corpus Callosum Axonal Injury in Multiple Sclerosis Measured by Proton Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopic Imaging, Arch. Neurology, 61(7): 1081-1086.2004.

Chan, AA, Lau, A, Pirzkall, A, Chang SM, Verhey LJ, Larson, D, McDermott, M, Dillon, W, Nelson SJ, Proton Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopic Imaging as a tool for evaluating grade IV glioma patients undergoing gamma knife radiosurgery, J. Neurosurgery, 101(3):467-475, 2004.

Nelson, SJ. MR Imaging and Spectroscopy, Engineering in Medicine and Biology Special Issue on Molecular Imaging, Sept-Oct (2), 2004.

Cunningham CH, Vigneron DB, Chen AP, Nelson SJ, Xu D, Hurd RE, Kelley DAC, Pauly JM. Design of flyback echo-planar readout gradients for MR spectroscopic imaging.  Magn. Reson. In Med. 2005 54:1286-9.

Pels P, Ozturk-Isik E, Swanson MG, Vanhamme L, Kurhanewicz J, Nelson SJ, Huffel SV. Quantification of prostate MRSI data by model-based time domain fitting and frequency domain analysis. NMR Biomed 2006; 19:188-197.