The MRI Unit at Queen Square
In 2008 the MS Society invested in state-of-the-art 3 Tesla MRI scanner at the Institute of Neurology and National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery in London. The new scanner will be instrumental in investigating some of the key challenges for current MS research, including:
• improving and simplifying diagnosis
• better understanding the different courses that MS can take
• finding out whether early changes detected by MRI can predict future disability
• speeding the process of identifying effective new treatments
MRI has been used in people with MS for more than 20 years. It helps to diagnose the condition and has given insights in to causes of symptoms and disabilities and also recovery.
In 1983 the MS Society funded the first MRI scanner in the world to be solely dedicated to MS research. In the early days, the MRI unit played an important role in showing how MRI scans could be used to diagnose MS and MRI scans have now become a routine part of diagnosis.
Since 1983 our knowledge and expertise has advanced and now new technologies are available which allow scans of dramatically increased image quality and resolution that allow us to see the underlying processes which occur in MS much more sensitively.
The new scanner will allow us to assess the benefits of new treatments more quickly and efficiently than is currently possible which should speed the journey to developing effective new treatments for people with MS.
This more powerful scanner can be used to underpin much MS research and along with future clinical developments from our two research centres at Cambridge and Edinburgh, will help to ensure that MS researchers remain at the cutting edge of MS clinical research.
Summary of Research March 2005
• improving and simplifying diagnosis
• better understanding the different courses that MS can take
• finding out whether early changes detected by MRI can predict future disability
• speeding the process of identifying effective new treatments
MRI has been used in people with MS for more than 20 years. It helps to diagnose the condition and has given insights in to causes of symptoms and disabilities and also recovery.
In 1983 the MS Society funded the first MRI scanner in the world to be solely dedicated to MS research. In the early days, the MRI unit played an important role in showing how MRI scans could be used to diagnose MS and MRI scans have now become a routine part of diagnosis.
Since 1983 our knowledge and expertise has advanced and now new technologies are available which allow scans of dramatically increased image quality and resolution that allow us to see the underlying processes which occur in MS much more sensitively.
The new scanner will allow us to assess the benefits of new treatments more quickly and efficiently than is currently possible which should speed the journey to developing effective new treatments for people with MS.
This more powerful scanner can be used to underpin much MS research and along with future clinical developments from our two research centres at Cambridge and Edinburgh, will help to ensure that MS researchers remain at the cutting edge of MS clinical research.
Summary of Research March 2005
