Resources for Diabetic Imaging

The Department of Radiology devotes a significant fraction of departmental research resources towards development and enhancement of imaging capabilities tomeasure and quantify chronic metabolic disorders resulting from diabetes. The deleterious effects of diabetes are reaching epidemic proportions both in San Antonio as well as around the world as dietary habits evolve to include increasing amounts of sugar and animal fats. Medical control of symptoms with diet and pharmaceuticals is improving but requires continuous monitoring with minimally invasive methods to significantly improve the quality of life. Research projects range from basic science studies of the impact of hyperglycemia on critical tissues that can be made quantifiable by MR imaging to clinical science studies of methods to inexpensively measure shifts in fat distributions resulting from long-term diabetes. Research is undertaken in collaboration with the Texas Diabetes Institute which provides long term care, consultation and fundamental research for more than 10,000 patients to alleviate the deleterious symptoms of the pernicious disease. Recent projects include the concept ofusing imaging end-points to accelerate the testing of pharmaceuticals with the potential of reducing the damage of diabetes through specific molecular mechanisms. The Radiology Department commits itself to providing access to high technology imaging resources to accelerate resolution of the population specific health care problems most critical to the largely Hispanic population of South Texas.