Research
Mayo Clinic researchers are working to expand the range of tissues and organs that can be noninvasively imaged using MRE. Conditions for which MRE might someday be used include:
- Breast cancer. Researchers are working on using MRE to tell the difference between benign and cancerous tumors.
- Musculoskeletal disease. Researchers are using MRE to measure muscular stiffness and freedom of movement. This could noninvasively assess muscle in typical and disease states.
- Alzheimer's disease. MRE has potential to show changes in brain mechanical properties, possibly leading to new methods for diagnosing Alzheimer's disease and other diseases affecting brain function at an earlier stage.
- Brain tumors. Mayo researchers are testing MRE for evaluating brain tumors as an aid to surgical planning.
- Heart disease. Mayo investigators have adapted MRE to assess the mechanical properties of the heart. This technology has potential to help in diagnosis of heart failure.
- Kidney disease. MRE may provide new ways to diagnose kidney fibrosis and to assess disease progression.
Read more about research in the Mayo Clinic Magnetic Resonance Imaging Laboratory.
Publications
See a list of publications about magnetic resonance elastography by Mayo Clinic doctors on PubMed, a service of the National Library of Medicine.