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Introduction Acupuncture has been widely reported to be a popular and safe intervention for smoking cessation. This study demonstrates the potential effects of acupuncture treatment for smoking cessation using the MRI technique of functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI). Purpose Substance dependence or addiction is nowadays uderstood in a multifactorial etiological model, which includes psychological, neurobiological, genetic, social and environmental factors. This study illustrates patterns of fMRI activation in various specific brain anatomies, such as frontal, temporal parietal, occipital and cerebellum that correlate with smoking. Materials and methods Participants of both genders were volunteers willing to quit smoking. The inclusion criteria were age (28–42 y) and rate of smoking >15 cigarrettes per day and had no previous experience of acupuncture treatment. Group A received real acupuncture, Group B sham acupuncture and Group C was the control group with no smokers. Acupuncture points used: Du-20, LI-20, LI-4,TB-5, ST-36, LIV-3 and treatments lasted for 20 min. fMRI was applied prior and post acupuncture treatment during the first 24 hours of smoking cessation. During the fMRI experiment a series of smoking related images were presented to each participant via a set of goggles in a block time-design manner. Results Increased brain response areas were observed, such as: dorsolateral prefrontal, primary motor gyrus, parahippocampal gyrus, hippocampus, insula, posterior cingulate cortex, somatosensory cortex, visual areas and external basal ganglia. Differences between Groups A and B, as well as interesting correlations between acupuncture points, fMRI findings and neurobiological areas are presented. Conclusion Our results provide evidences over a pattern of slightly different brain activation following real and sham acupuncture after a short term smoking abstinence. The observed differences are in areas involved in drug addiction and smoking maintenance/abstinence literature.

Introduction Intravoxel Incoherent Motion (IVIM) imaging is a method that provides quantitative assessment all of the microscopic translational motions that could contribute to the signal acquired with diffusion weighted imaging (DWI) in MRI. The fundamental idea was that the molecular motion of water is randomly oriented in the capillary network at ultralow b values of diffusion imaging, mimicking a random walk. Diffusion parameters derived from IVIM model – perfusion F, true-ADC (D slow ), pseudo-ADC (D fast ) – have roused the researcher’s interest. Purpose The aim of this study is to quantify the IVIM model diffusion parameters in patients with brain lesions compared to the normal appearing symmetric regions of the brain. Materials and methods Patients underwent DWI on a 3T MRI system using an 8-channel sense head coil. DWI was performed with axial single-shot spin echo planar imaging (EPI) sequence with 10b values (0, 10, 15, 50, 80, 100, 200, 400, 700, 1000 s/mm 2 ). The IVIM model diffusion parameters of D slow , D fast and F were calculated using a biexponential curve fitting model based on Levenberg–Marquardt algorithm applied in an in-house platform in Matlab. The statistical analysis between contra lateral regions was based on Student’s t tests. Results Perfusion fraction F measured in brain damage regions showed significantly increased values compared to normal appearing symmetric regions. Parameters D slow and D fast had no statistical significance. Conclusion The F parameter may consist a new sensitive biomarker for providing additional information to conventional diffusion parameters and predicting preliminary brain damage.

Introduction Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI) reveals in vivo abnormalities in white matter (WM) fiber structure and has improved our knowledge of disease pathophysiology in several central nervous system (CNS) pathologies with WM involvement, especially through the analysis of different DTI indices. Purpose To investigate the sensitivity of DTI parameters using tract based spatial statistics (TBSS) in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), as a CNS disease with predominant WM involvement. Material and methods We included 58 participants (36 patients with ALS and 22 healthy controls). All of them were scanned on 3.0T MR system, with 30-directional DTI and 3D-T1-weighted anatomical sequences. Whole-brain WM analysis was conducted using FSL and TBSS to estimate fractional anisotropy (FA), axial diffusivity (Ad) and radial diffusivity (Rd). Voxelwise statistical analysis was performed via a permutation-based inference for nonparametric statistical thresholding (5000 permutations). Two sample t-tests were applied to evaluate local alterations in DTI parameters (p Results In ALS patients we observed significant decreased FA and increased Rd (p left), including corticospinal tract (CST), body of the corpus callosum and superior longitudinal fasciculus. Rd changes were more diffuse and found along the CST axis (WM of precentral gyrus, corona radiata, internal capsule). No changes were detected for Ad (p > 0.05). Conclusion Decomposing the commonly used DTI parameters (FA and Mean Diffusivity) into Ad and Rd may be useful in identifying widespread WM changes in ALS and proved as a potential sensitive index for CNS neurodegenerative process. Disclosure F.C. acknowledges support from the IKY Fellowships of Excellence for Postgraduate Studies in Greece – Siemens Program . We also acknowledge the Philips Medical System for providing all necessary research keys for MR/DTI sequence acquisition. The funders and/or contributors had no role in study design, data collection and analysis or preparation of the abstract. Finally, we would like to thank the patients with ALS and their families, as well as healthy volunteers for their willingness to participate to the present study.

Introduction MR imaging is widely used method to aid in the detection of multiple sclerosis (MS) lesions in the cord. Improving the sensitivity of the detection of MS lesions can be useful in the medical diagnosis and could lead to a better approach and heal of the disease. Purpose The aim of this study was to compare T2-weighted turbo spin-echo (TSE) combined with spectral adiabatic inversion recovery technique for fat suppression (SPAIR) with proton density (PD) SPAIR in the detection of cervical MS plaques. Materials and methods Twenty five patients with clinically confirmed MS were examined on a 3.0T MR system. T2 and PD TSE SPAIR sequences were obtained in sagittal plane, using the same in plane resolution and slice thickness. The images set were assessed by two independent observers for the lesion detectability and image quality. Quantitative measurements of lesion-to-cord contrast ratio and lesion-contrast-to-noise ratio were obtained. All the lesions were verified with axial T2 multi echo gradient echo images. Results Fifteen of the scanned patients had MS lesion detected. PD_TSE_SPAIR sequence was most efficient in detection of MS lesions, demonstrated increased lesion contrast ratios about 15%, and also provided better image quality than T2_TSE_SPAIR. Twenty percent of lesions (3/20) that were not statistically significantly different from background cord signal on the T2 sequence. Conclusion PD_TSE_SPAIR sequence had high sensitivity to the detection of MS lesions compared to T2_TSE_SPAIR and should be included in the core sequences to the spinal MRI protocol for the assessment of suspected demyelinating disease. Disclosure There is not any disclosure.