Ivan I. Kirov, PhD

In the clinic, neurologists often encounter patients whose symptoms are not explained by an MRI exam. Such discordance between clinical and radiological findings is explained by the fact that a routine MRI does not reflect all aspects of brain health. For example, tissue that looks normal on MRI can have chemical imbalances that can be responsible for current symptoms or future disease. One way to image such biochemical or metabolic changes is a technique called magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS). The research of our laboratory focuses on the use of MRS in neurological disorders, particularly in concussion/traumatic brain injury (TBI) and multiple sclerosis (MS).

The work is done through departmental, institutional, and international collaborations with physicians, physicists, and other scientists, and currently includes the following areas of investigation funded by the National Institutes of Health:

• Quantitative Sodium MR Imaging and Proton MR Spectroscopy in Traumatic Brain Injury. Metabolic, microstructural and other quantitative MRI data is acquired to investigate the use of multimodal MRI and MRS to predict long-term TBI outcomes.
• Multiparametric MR Spectroscopy in MS. In our research on MS, the goal is to study the metabolic changes occurring in recently diagnosed patients. A current focus is on the use of multiparametric MRS to detect neurodegeneration.
• MR Spectroscopy in pre-clinical Alzheimer's Disease. This research, supported by NYU Langone’s Alzheimer’s Disease Center, aims to identify novel MRS markers and approaches that can be used to predict the onset of the disease.
• MR Spectroscopy of Repetitive TBI in Athletes. Here the goal is to detect pathology which is associated with repetitive TBI.