Jiani Hu, PhD
Co-Director of the MR Research Facility, Professor of Radiology
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| E-Mail: jhu@med.wayne.edu |
| Mailing Address: WSU MRI Core, 4201 St. Antoine, Detroit, MI 48201 |
| Phone: (313) 993-7947 Fax: (313) 745-9182 |
| Publications |
Dr. Hu's current research focuses on three areas: glymphatic system, body susceptibility-weighted imaging (SWI), and cancer diagnosis and screening. The glymphatic system is a newly defined brain-wide para-vascular pathway for interstitial fluid (ISF) and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) exchange that facilitates efficient clearance of interstitial toxic solutes away from the brain. Abnormalities in this system have been hypothesized to contribute to both initiation and progression of many neurological diseases. However, the absence of a powerful non-invasive in vivo imaging technique has been the limiting factor for human study. MRI could be the imaging modality for glymphatic study except its low detection sensitivity. The combination of SWI with USPIO agents could be a solution. We have demonstrated the potential of improving MRI detection sensitivity by more than 1000 times using the SWI-USPIO technique.
The importance of detecting and evaluating hemorrhage, thrombosis, iron deposition, calcification, and blood oxygenation level in diagnosis, prognosis, treatment planning or evaluation is well understood because many diseases, surgeries or interventional procedures can involve one or more of these "SWI-sensitive" abnormalities. Despite routine brain SWI examinations in many hospitals across the world, SWI has not been applied to the body until recently. We are continuing to develop SWI techniques and extend their applications from the brain to the body.
Another Dr. Hu's major research interest is cancer research. Dr. Hu has published more than 40 papers on the topic. One of Dr. Hu’s latest cancer research focuses is to detect ultra-small cancer in their early stage using the combination of nanoparticle based delivery systems, nanoparticle based USPIO agents, and SWI blooming effects. Computer simulation, in vitro phantom and in vivo animal studies are very promising, demonstrating the potential of detecting objects that are 1000 times of smaller in size than that by a conventional MRI.
In brief, Dr. Hu explores in vivo MR properties of tissues for diagnosis, prognosis and treatment follow-up using the state-of-art in vivo magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and spectroscopy (MRS) techniques.