B -- ANCILLARY STUDY OF MULTI-SLICE HEAD-TO-TOE MAGNETIC RESONANCE IMAGING SCANS

Notice Date

July 11, 2001

Contracting Office

National Institute on Aging, Intramural Research Program, Gerontology Research Center, 5600 Nathan Shock Drive, Baltimore, Maryland 21224

ZIP Code

21224

Solicitation Number

LEDB #1

Response Due

July 20, 2001

Point of Contact

Pat Meise 410-558-8043

E-Mail Address

click here to contact purchasing agent (meisep@grc.nia.nih.gov)

Description

The National Institute on Aging, Gerontology Research Center, intends to negotiate on a sole source basis with Dr. Dympna Gallagher, Obesity Research Center/Columbia University, St. Luke's Roosevelt Institute for Health Sciences, 1090 Amsterdam Avenue, 14th Floor, New York, NY 10025. The center will re-read existing head-to-toe MRI scans to address the following: 1) to separate the muscle and visible muscle fat in slice-by-slice analysis of existing MRI scans. Each scan has 50 slices. 2) On computerized tomography, a qualitative measurement of non-visible fat infiltratin in the muscle can be estimated using Hounsfields Units, a measure of x-ray density of tissue that may be a useful surrogate for fatty infiltration into muscle below the resolution of the CT scanner. No similar measure exists for MRI although a preliminary examination of scans suggested that the density of muscle varies by level of visible fat in the muscle. We will try to devise an algorithm for a quantitative measure of fatty infiltration for the MRI scans. If not, only visible muscle fat will be accounted for and 3) to quantify the infiltration of fat into muscle by type and location of muscle and to characterize the pattern of fat within the muscle (i.e. localized, diffuse, along fascial planes). Th evaluate the consistency of these patterns in the body.

Record

Loren Data Corp. 20010713/BSOL001.HTM (W-192 SN50R515)