EPTTo give some background, i'm only in my second year of undergrad and this is a summer research project. The project title is Susceptibility-enhanced imaging (SWI) and chronic cerebro-spinal venous insufficiency (CCSVI) in Multiple Sclerosis.
To give a little background for clarity, multiple sclerosis has been correlated to high iron concentrations in the brain accelerating the progression of the demyelination in the deep white matter structures. Now, CCSVI is commonly caused by stenoses (narrowing of blood vessels) that causes venous reflux back into the brain causing even more iron accumulation. The problem is, that area of blood vessels is very difficult to image so my part of the research was to evaluate the methods to see which method would be the more appropriate for imaging CCSVI.
Now, my failure abstracts. I realized, despite the amount of research papers i've read for my courses, it never really sunk into me the actual structure of the abstract itself. as such, i looked at a couple of the papers to use as a bit of a template.
Abstract #1
Although chronic cerebro-spinal venous insufficiency (CCSVI) has been correlated with iron accumulation in the central nervous system, it’s actual involvement in the progression of multiple sclerosis is unknown. Data from previous studies have suggested that susceptibility weighted imaging (SWI) would be the most appropriate imaging technique to further investigate venous reflux associated with CCSVI. Another technique similar to SWI dubbed T2* weighted angiography (SWAN) has been suggested for investigating venous reflux as well. Signal Intensities from T2* weighted gradient echo imaging (T2* GRE) and SWAN were compared to determine their precision in CCSVI imaging. The data from patients was normalized by each of their cerebro-spinal fluid (CSF) to be consistent across the cohort. A statistical analysis was carried out after coding the data for analysis of variance (ANOVA). This evaluation found that SWAN had a much greater degree of variance and a decrease in precision compared to T2* GRE.
Abstract #2
T2* Gradient Echo Imaging (GRE) and SWAN imaging was used to evaluate nine normal control patients and 15 patients with multiple sclerosis (determined by hyperintense lesions on T2 weighted fluid attenuated inversion recovery (FLAIR) sequences). Regions of interest (ROI) were drawn around the globulus pallidus, putamen, and the thalamus and their signal intensities were measured and normalized by the cerebro-spinal fluid (CSF). The data was then coded up for use in analysis of variance (ANOVA) to determine which method is more precise in diagnosing venous reflux in chronic cerebro-spinal venous insufficiency (CCSVI). The evaluation found that SWAN imaging had a far greater degree of variance compared to T2* GRE as represented by a larger p value indicating that there is a larger range between the minimum and maximum data points collected. To continue the study, T2* GRE will be compared to susceptibility weighted imagine (SWI) in a similar fashion.
Any insight would be helpful. Need to submit this to the scholarship people funding me soon for an upcoming presentation.
Just aim for someone who knows the field well to be able to read your abstract and get a reasonable idea of what the point of you doing anything was, what you did, and what you found
