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As it happens…
Day 1: Introduction and Welcome Speech - Richard Edden
Plenary Lecture: A History of Edited MRS - Melissa Terpstra
Captivated audience
Day 2: Despite the weather, the journey continues
Brief introductory lecture on GABA/glutamate and glutamine Biochemistry - Aaron Gudmundson
Captivated… again
Discussions on edited MRS from data acquisition to assessment
“Is MRS of GABA a meaningful index of inhibition?” - The Great Debate
We are pleased to release the final program for the 5th International Symposium on GABA and Advanced MRS taking place in Park City, Utah!
As an optional extra session, we will be offering to attendees one-on-one data clinics on Thursday, November 21st @ 9–11 am. Please email the organizing committee should you be interested in one of these: gabasymposium@gmail.com.
Just a reminder to SUBMIT YOUR ABSTRACTS for the 5th INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM ON GABA AND ADVANCED MRS.
And don’t forget to book your hotel room early to help us make our quotas.
Introducing Gannet 3.1! This new version includes a number of updates and bug fixes. Notable additions include a new frequency-and-phase correction algorithm (robust spectral registration) and functionality for EtOH/GABA/GSH HERMES data.
Gannet 3.1 is available for immediate download at the following link: https://github.com/richardedden/Gannet3.1/archive/master.zip
Release notes:
MAJOR CHANGES
Adopted semantic versioning (see semver.org)
Aesthetic changes to PDF outputs throughout
Add functionality for processing and fitting of EtOH/GABA/GSH HERMES data
Introduced Robust_Spectral_Registration.m: robust correction of frequency/phase errors (recommended and default for all acquisition types)
If using Robust_Spectral_Registration.m, sub-spectra are averaged using weighted averaging; outlier removal is not applied in this case
nlinfit will no longer throw an error if peak model fitting is poor
GannetQuantify.m corrects metabolite measurements for partial tissue volume effects using the Gasparovic et al., 2006 (MRM) method; the Harris et al., 2015 (JMRI) method (alpha correction) is still also applied
MINOR CHANGES
Averaged HERMES sub-spectra are saved in MRS_struct.spec
HSVD water removal can be applied to all MEGA-PRESS and HERMES data (on by default)
Improved optimization parameters for frequency/phase alignment and peak model fitting
Turned off ignorable warnings that sometimes occur during peak model fitting in GannetFit.m
Fixed bugs in GannetMask_GE.m
Tissue fractions saved in MRS_struct.out renamed to fGM, fWM and fCSF
Text font in PDF outputs changed to Arial for cross-OS compatibility
More appropriate SNR thresholding in Spectral_Registration.m/Spectral_Registration_HERMES.m/Robust_Spectral_Registration.m
We are pleased to announce that registration for the 5th International Symposium on GABA and Advanced MRS is now open.
The Symposium will be held from the 18th until the 20th of November 2019 in Park City, Utah, USA. The meeting will bring together scientists applying GABA editing and other advanced MRS techniques to questions of clinical and basic neuroscience, and those working on issues surrounding data acquisition and processing.
Registration
To register, please go to our website or directly to the registration page. Early bird registration ends June 1st, 2019.
Early-bird registration before June 1st 2019, $160 + fees
Standard registration before September 1st 2019, $240 + fees
Late registration after September 1st 2019, $360 + fees
This assumes a stay at a conference hotel. You are welcome to stay elsewhere, although at additional cost as we need to cover a certain number of rooms. We encourage staying at the Sheraton hotel, as it will also facilitate further discussion and networking.
Abstracts
Abstract and discussion topic submission will open on April 1st.
Abstracts will be submitted for short oral formats of 10 or 15 minutes. Discussion topics will be grouped and selected for round-table discussions (in sub-group format depending on numbers) to discuss issues or questions regarding MRS of GABA. We aim to allocate all submitted abstracts.
Meeting venue & accommodation
This year, we will hold the symposium at Sheraton Park City.
Sheraton Park City welcomes travelers from all over the world to Park City, home to the acclaimed Sundance Film Festival and host of the 2002 Winter Olympics. From exceptional snow sports at Park City and Deer Valley Resorts to summertime activities like fly-fishing, mountain biking, and hiking, take advantage of all that this world-class destination offers. Only 35 minutes from Salt Lake International Airport, arrive at Sheraton Park City and settle into your guest room or suite boasting pillow-top mattresses, warm décor, and high-speed Wi-Fi to keep you comfortable and always connected. Enjoy easy access to historic Main Street, discover premier restaurants, boutiques, and art galleries. Plan flawless meetings in our 14,000 sq. ft. of flexible meeting space with our Sales and Events Team. Following an adventurous day, enjoy contemporary American entrees at DEN Restaurant or cap off the evening with your drink of choice at Timbers Bar & Patio. Sheraton Park City is where new experiences become lasting memories.
If you have any further questions or comments, please email gabasymposium@gmail.com. Our website will be updated with more information.
We're looking forward to seeing you in Utah!
Very best wishes,
The Organizing Committee
MEGA-PRESS, a spectral editing method, has gained popularity in the MRS community thanks to its ability to edit low-concentration metabolites with relative ease of implementation, allowing direct and unambiguous measurements of the inhibitory neurotransmitter GABA, the antioxidant glutathione (GSH), and the anaerobic product lactate (Lac). However, current implementations of MEGA-PRESS are diverse across vendors, differing in terms of RF pulse shapes and pulse sequence timings. Recent multi-site data revealed that ~30% of the variance in the GABA+ data is attributed to the site- and vendor-level differences in the implementation of MEGA-PRESS.
Recently, Muhammad Saleh and colleagues developed a new universal MEGA-PRESS sequence for the major MR vendors (Philips, Siemens, GE, and Canon) with common RF pulse shapes and timings, and has functionality for HERMES editing of GABA and GSH (Figure 1). Upon comparing with the existing vendor-native sequences, the universal sequence yielded edited spectra with strong correlations and low variance among vendors at both short and long TEs phantom and in vivo experiments (Figures 2 and 3). The universal sequence includes simultaneous editing of GABA and GSH with HERMES, allowing excellent separation of the edited signals in half the scan time compared with the sequentially acquired conventional MEGA editing. The universal sequence is available collaboratively to the community for application in future studies.
Exciting times ahead: Building on the universal sequence, Georg Oeltzschner and colleagues developed HERCULES sequence, capable of editing seven coupled metabolites that would usually require a single 11-min editing experiment each. This sequence is also available collaboratively to the community for application in future studies.
For more updates, stay tuned for any new developments from Edden's lab. Universal edited MRS sequences will be presented at the 27th Annual Meeting of the ISMRM, Montreal, Canada, 2019. Looking forward to meeting you all.
Figure 1: Pulse sequence diagrams indicating RF pulse shapes and timings for the vendor-native Philips, Siemens, GE and Canon sequences, and the universal sequence at TE = 68 ms.
Figure 2: a) MEGA-PRESS experiment using the GABA phantom (TE = 68 ms) and Lac phantom (TE = 140 ms) from vendor-native sequences (left) and the universal sequence (right). b) Edited spectra from HERMES experiments acquired using the universal sequence, performed in a GABA phantom (left) and a GSH phantom (right).
Figure 4: In vivo experiments using the universal sequence. Spectra acquired on Philips and Siemens scanners are overlaid for each subject: a) MEGA-PRESS GABA (TE = 68 ms) and Lac (TE = 140 ms) spectra; b) GABA- and GSH-edited HERMES spectra. In vivo experiments using the universal sequence for GE (green) and Canon (red) scanners: c) MEGA-PRESS GABA-edited (TE = 68 ms) and Lac-edited (TE = 140 ms) spectra; d) GABA- and GSH-edited HERMES spectra. Spectra acquired are overlaid on the ± 1SD range (in gray) of the amalgamated Philips and Siemens data (6 subjects).