Effects of Yoga Exercises on Diabetic Mellitus as Validated by Magnetic Resonance Imaging.

CONTEXT AND AIMS: Effects of practicing yoga in diabetic mellitus (DM) patients have been identified to improve in control of blood glucose levels. The purpose of this work is to evaluate changes in blood flow of calf muscles after specific yoga postures for patients with DM using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) techniques. Time of flight (TOF) magnetic resonance angiography maximum intensity projection (MIP), T1 maps, T2 maps, and diffusion-weighted Imaging are performed on volunteers and DM patients both pre- and post-exercise. MATERIALS AND METHODS: TOF MIP, T1 maps with variable flip angles, and T2-weighted spin-echo imaging were performed on four volunteers (aged 30 ± 5) and DM patients (aged 32-68) preexercise, on a 1.5 T Siemens scanner. The total acquisition time was 6 min 20 s. Each volunteer and DM patient were then requested to perform yoga postures Supta Padangusthasana, Utkatasana, and Calf raise for 6 min 30 s at maximum effort, outside the scanner, and subsequently rescanned. To calculate significant signal increase, region of interests was drawn on TOF MIP coronal images in arteries of calf muscles. Student t-tests were performed to determine statistical significance. RESULTS: Among volunteers, a significant signal increase in arteries of calf muscles was noticed, signal intensity graphs were plotted. In DM patients, signal increase in TOF MIP, T2-weighted images were seen in specific arteries (posterior, anterior tibial, and posterior tibial) of calf muscles postexercise. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS: The study indicates that yoga has a positive short-term effect on multiple DM-related foot complications. This study depicts that MRI provides potential insight into the benefits of yoga for DM patients through deriving biomarkers for preventive medicine relevant to yoga interception.

Cost-Effective, Integrated In Vitro Phantoms for Cardiac MRI.

To provide lab scale in vitro phantom solutions for cardiac MR (CMR) studies that can be used for imaging structure and function as well as calorimetric measurements. The phantoms were purposed to accept user inputs such as beats per minute (BPM) and flow rate. We developed two generations of phantoms. The first phantom was developed using poly vinyl alcohol driven by a mechanical setup. The second was a 3D-printed phantom controlled through a user interface (UI) and a peristaltic pump. These phantoms were scanned for the characteristics mentioned above, which were qualitatively and quantitatively assessed through postprocessing of CMR images and compared with in vivo data.

Automatic motion correction of Musculoskeletal MRI using DSLR camera.

The purpose of this study is to illustrate motion correction in Musculoskeletal (MSK) Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) through utilization of information from an optical tracker to capture the extent and instant of motion. A Digital Single Lens Reflexive camera is employed as the optical tracker to capture the extent and instant of motion. A checkerboard is utilized as a marker that is placed on the coil. Shift of the checkerboard provides the extent of motion, which is captured by camera and is used for motion correction in (MSK)-MRI images. Experiments were first performed on an in vitro phantom to obtain calibration curves, which determine the relationship between object movement and pixel shifts. Six healthy volunteers were recruited for the study and experiments were repeated thrice on each subject. Reducing the gradient entropy of the image with reference to the calibration curve resulted in motion correction. Fusion of motion-free data with motion-corrupted data and motion free data with motion-corrected data was performed for qualitative analysis of data. Normalized Root Mean Squared Error of the motion-corrected data with respect motion-free was approximately 20% lesser compared to motion-corrupted data with respect to motion-free data with better delineation of edges and reduced ghosting. The work focuses on time of displacement through an external tracker on the RF coil and utilizes that information for motion correction. The method can be readily implemented on a clinical scanner, while it is not necessary for the subject to wear motion sensors.