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Emily Dalton

Biology 1615

April 7, 2017

MRIs and Cerebral Malaria

Cerebral Malaria, a growing concern in sub-Saharan Africa and in other parts of the

world may have new developing treatment thanks to Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)

technology. Cerebral Malaria is a deadly disease that is climbing the charts in underdeveloped

countries proving to be the most common cause of death. In adults and children alike, Malaria is

recognized to be the number one killer in endemic areas of the world. Previous reported cases of

Cerebral Malaria have been shown that one in four children in sub-Saharan Africa who recover

from the acute episode still suffer from cognitive defects and the reason for comatose remains

unknown.

Scientists already know how the virus is spread by the Plasmodium falciparum

infection that is transmitted by the female mosquito but still have yet to discover the reason

people fall into a coma due to the infection. Researchers have chosen to shine light onto this

topic due to its importance of potentially finding the reason of comatose in patients infected with

the cerebral malaria diagnosis. With the help of MRI techniques, scientists can now offer a clear

diagnosis of cerebral malaria and scan the brain for cognitive features that could broaden our

comprehension on the disease.

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Thanks to recent developments with Magnetic Resonance Imaging technology,

researchers have discovered that scanning a patients brain that is infected with cerebral malaria

offers new insight on how the disease works, what the symptoms are, and an all-around

improved understanding of the disease itself. Researchers are hoping to gather enough

information to find the underlying cause of comatose because of infection from Plasmodium

falciparum. The overall goal of these scientists is to Overcome the challenges of using magnetic

resonance techniques for the study of cerebral malaria.

This topic is vital in informing the public in the developed world that there is a persistent

problem in underdeveloped countries that causes a great deal of suffering in people and that

researchers are closer to ending that anguish. The world needs to be made aware of the countries

that are effected with this disease and should be held accountable for assistance in finding,

treating, and researching cerebral malaria. It is a global problem could potentially affect the rest

of the world if nothing is done.

The researcher behind this article made it clear that Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)

machines could solve the mystery of cerebral edema (brain swelling) that is caused from cerebral

malaria and also bring insight on comatose from the disease as well. With MRI machines now

being available in highly infected areas, there has been more scientific breakthroughs then ever.

The author of this academic article is trying to persuade the reader that with Application of

Magnetic Resonance Imaging for malaria could provide enormous dividends in advancing our

understanding of this scourge of the developing world.

Researchers on the topic have done multiple tests on mostly rodents and primates who

were infected with malaria. They took several skin and tissue cells of the test subjects
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postmortem and determined information only about the end result as opposed to evidence about

the ailment itself. In addition to tissue specimens, scientists and researchers also implemented

the use of arterial spin labeling (ASL) to take measurements of brain blood flow in the test

subjects.

These same researchers also conducted experiments such as: Time of flight magnetic

resonance angiography (TOF-MRA) that found properties of blood delivery from some blood

vessels to other branching blood networks. They also found that they could only test tissue cells

from patients who have died and found that information to be indirect. Researchers were

inconclusive and unsuccessful in their findings when testing primates and rodents because the

strain of virus was not transmitted through the process of plasmodium falciparum (female

mosquito parasite bite) and therefore were unsuccessful in gaining the information they needed.

The results were unexpected to scientists and their rebuttal to their dilemma was to find a non-

invasive way of conducting the experiment again.

The results were inconclusive in some respects but in others, like for example, the ASL technique

provided tissue perfusion on a scale of millimeters. Scientists will be needing more resources

and funding to provide more MRI medical equipment in under developing countries in highly

populated areas infected with malaria. Because of lack of technology for examinations on sick

patients, results most of the time came up short. Scientists did infect test animals for research

purposes but found those results to be unsuccessful due to injection of infection rather than

through plasmodium falciparum when the female mosquito delivers the infection through her

bite.
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Perhaps if they had the technology in these countries, testing could have been more effective. If

they had the means of gathering a live tissue sample from a living patient, maybe the results

would have been more conclusive.

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Works Cited

Bibliography

(n.d.).

Sornachi Looareesuwa, Jiraporn Laothamatas, Truman R. Brown, And Gary M Brittenham.

"Cerebral Malaria: A New Way Forward with Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)." (August 11,

2007): 545- 547.