Associate Investigator,
The Feinstein Institute for Medical Research
Phone: (718) 562-1166
E-mail: pspetsie@nshs.edu
Positron Emission Tomography (PET) scans are quantitative images of metabolic and other functional processes in the brain. Dr. Spetsieris, in collaboration with other members of Dr. David Eidelberg’s team, focuses on incorporating novel neuro-computational algorithms in a versatile software package for brain Scan Analysis and Visualization (ScAnVP). ScAnVP is used in various collaborative studies at the Feinstein as well as externally world-wide to study movement disorders such as Parkinson’s Disease, Huntington’s Disease and Dystonia as well as a wide range of other neurodegenerative functional brain conditions.
ScAnVP utilizes the Scaled Subprofile Model of Principal Component Analysis (SSM/PCA) to reduce large patient group data sets of PET or other modality images to single image patterns reflecting networks of common regional brain covariations that characterize a particular neurodegenerative disease. It also provides an associated subject score for an individual’s expression of each network pattern. Individual scores for such SSM/PCA image pattern “biomarkers” are used in patient monitoring and diagnosis and in experimental group trials of new drugs and interventions.
Dr. Spetsieris’s recent focus is in the characterization of various normal brain resting state patterns such as the “default mode network” and the modulation of their expression in disease.
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