Helle M, Rüfer S, van Osch MJP, Jansen O, Norris DG. Multi-vessel labeling
approach for perfusion territory imaging in pseudo-continuous arterial spin label- ing. 19th Annual Meeting of the International Society of Magnetic Resonance
in Medicine 2011, Montréal, Quebec, Canada.
Hartkamp N, Helle M, Hendrikse J, van Osch MJP. Mixed cerebral perfusion
territories in the posterior circulation investigated using super-selective arterial spin labeling MRI.19thAnnual Meeting of the International Society of Magnetic
Helle M, Rüfer S, van Osch MJP, Norris DG, Jansen O, Nabavi A. Presurgical
assessment of the feeding vasculature in extra-axial tumors with superselec- tive arterial spin labeling. 19thAnnual Meeting of the International Society of
Magnetic Resonance in Medicine 2011, Montréal, Quebec, Canada.
Helle M, Norris DG, Rüfer S, Alfke K, Jansen O. Theoretical investigation and
optimization of the labeling process in continuous artery-selective spin label- ing (CASSL). 17th Annual Meeting of the International Society of Magnetic
Resonance in Medicine 2009, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA.
Helle M, van Osch MJP, Norris DG, Rüfer S, Alfke K, Jansen O. Pseudo-
Continuous Artery-Selective Spin Labeling (pseudo-CASSL).17thAnnual Meet-
ing of the International Society of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine 2009, Hon- olulu, Hawaii, USA.
Helle M, Norris DG, Alfke K, Jansen O. Continuous Artery-Selective Spin
Labeling (CASSL) applied to distal branches of intracranial arteries. 16thAnnual
Meeting of the International Society of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine 2008, Toronto, Canada.
Helle M, Voges I, Jerosch-Herold M, Hart C, Hansen T, Kramer HH, Rickers C.
Compliance and Anatomy of the Neo-Aorta in Children with Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome (HLHS).16th Annual Meeting of the International Society of
The work described in this doctoral thesis could not have been carried out with- out the support of a lot of people who constantly supported me in the last few years - far too many for this section to consider every single person or to share every single contribution that has been so important for me.
When I started my position in the Institute of Neuroradiology, I was one of two physicists within a small group of physicians and technicians. In this clinical en- vironment I was the only one supposed to work on MRI sequence development, in particular arterial spin labeling. However, with the guidance and inspiration of three outstanding (Co-) Supervisors it was possible to fill all the (many) pages of this thesis:
I am greatly indebted to Prof. Olav Jansen, who constantly provides me with plenty of support and enough freedom to foster my ideas in the course of the research. His door has always been open for me and he never got tired neither of explaining the medical background nor of answering all of my questions which made it possible for me to develop an eye not only for the technical needs but also for the clinical requirements of MRI. I greatly enjoyed the many conversations we had and which let us drift more than once into all kinds of other topics apart from work.
I am very grateful to Prof. David Norris who was willing to supervise me in spite of the large distance between Kiel and Nijmegen. His initial question at the beginning of our cooperation “Don’t you think it would be interesting to
find out up to which vessel size we are able to selectively label the blood?”
provides the basis for all my research in the last years. David’s experience was invaluable and although he was elected the president of the International Society of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine and involved in various other projects he answered all of my questions, was always open for discussions, sent proofreads and corrected manuscripts – all in a remarkable short time so that my own work and progress has never been stalled.
Extraordinary and special thanks go to Dr. Matthias van Osch. Thijs and I first met at the pulse programming course in Zurich shortly after I took the position in Kiel and we started a close cooperation about one and a half year later. He spent a lot of his valuable time in supporting me, never got tired of
my questions regarding perfusion MRI, gave clear advise, discussed ideas and approaches and also shared a lot of the ASL programming code with me. I really enjoyed his visits in Kiel, especially during the Kieler Woche, which provided a welcome diversion after extensive scan sessions.
I am also indebted to all of my colleagues in the department for five incredible years that I have appreciated a lot. None of them ever got tired of answering clinical questions and supported me a lot in terms of administration, volun- teering and patient acquisition. I am very grateful (especially to Claudia Bahr) for frequently providing me with “only 10 minutes” of valuable clinical routine scan time. Their help in patient handling was as essential for my work as the numerous laughs we had during the day (or night) and which I enjoyed a lot. I would also thank my physicist colleagues: Stephan particularly for introducing me to all technical insights of the scanner, especially at the beginning of my work, and later on Susanne for the helpful discussions regarding ASL and other aspects of our work as well as for the constant mutual support.
I am also thankful to the many people I have met in the University Hospi- tal Schleswig-Holstein and who have been very helpful and welcoming. This especially includes people from the departments of Neurosurgery, Neurology, Neuropediatrics, Pediatric Cardiology and Sexual Medicine.
Many thanks go also to the numerous volunteers who generously agreed to serve as “guinea pigs” and patiently bore the awkward (and maybe even annoying) sounds of an MRI machine.
For her kind contribution of the Dutch translation of the summary, I thank Emily van Mierlo.
I cannot omit to thank my family for their exceptional and ongoing support in all I am doing. Alongside them there is a much wider “family” and friends who have all had their effect on who I am today and what I have achieved. To all these people I would like to say: THANK YOU!