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            Auburn University - University Relations
                         (334) 844-9999
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4/20/95             Mitch Emmons

AUBURN ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING COURSE EXPLORES BIOMEDICAL USES
     AUBURN -- An electrical engineering course being offered for
the first time at Auburn University this spring is exploring
applications in biomedical imaging technology that may help heart
attack victims within the next three to five years.
     Introduction to Medical Imaging is being taught by Thomas
Denney, an assistant professor who developed the course from his
doctoral research at The Johns Hopkins University. It covers the
basic physics and mathematics behind magnetic resonance imaging,
computed tomography and ultrasound. 
     Denney is using a new medical imaging technology -- a
three-dimensional computer model of the actual functions of a human
heart that he and colleagues at Johns Hopkins are developing as a
more efficient diagnostics tool for examining heart attack victims.
     "We want to reconstruct and describe the motion of a beating
heart," he says. "While conventional MRI can show moving images of
the heart, it cannot accurately show areas where a heart attack
might have caused severe damage. If you are actually trying to get
a quantitative description of how much a certain heart muscle
contracts, standard MRI technology will not give you that."
     The advanced techniques used by Denney and his colleagues
involve placement of a magnetic grid -- called tagging -- over the
image of the beating heart. 
     "By observing these tags, we can see precisely how much
specific heart muscles contract -- or don't contract -- which would
be the case in damaged tissue," Denney says.
     The image then is translated into a three-dimensional, full
color, moving computer model that can be used by doctors to more
accurately -- and without surgery -- assess a heart patient's
condition.
     "It is a completely non-invasive way to examine a heart attack
victim, and provide the attending physician an additional
diagnostic tool when surgery as a means for correcting heart
problems might be in question," Denney added.
     Denney says muscle tissue actually dies when blood flow is
blocked to an area as it is during a severe heart attack.
     "Sometimes, surgically restoring blood flow to damaged areas
can cause the muscle to work again," he said. "But if the tissue is
actually dead, it cannot be repaired. The problem is that today's
(MRI) methods do not accurately show the difference between damaged
and dead areas of tissue.
     "What we're working on is a way to tell before undertaking
surgery, whether it will be beneficial or not."
     Denney estimates that a heart modeling technology will be
ready for medical uses within the next three to five years. The
University of Pennsylvania and Stanford University also are working
on similar technologies, he said. 
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     CONTACT: Denney, 334/844-1862.