Ted Kennedy's Brain Tumor

Ted Kennedy's diagnosis with a brain tumor has been reported with sympathy and many comments linking his treatment to arguments for and against the present methods of healthcare payments.

This post is not concerned with politics at all but I am interested in the treatment. One of his doctor's major concerns would have been carrying out a procedure which might damage a critical area of Ted Kennedy's brain. The possibility of leaving him with a speech problem must have been a large concern.

The picture on the right is a brain scan using a functional magnetic resonance imaging [fMRI]. The big thing that's different about fMRI compared to MRI is that fMRI gives a doctor the opportunity to identify areas of the brain concerned with specific functions - like speech. In this picture the red areas show the patient's brain area activated to listen to and understand speech are shown up in red.

The fMRI gives a picture of the brain in action - listening, talking, understanding images. To visualize the tumor the patient is injected with a dye which shows up on the scan enhancing the tumor image. The problem comes in trying to remove the tumor because the brain has so many special areas in the cerebral cortex and these areas are not in exactly the same position in everybody.

The fMRI measures the use of oxygen from one moment to the next in very precise areas of the brain. The patient is asked to carry out specific tests to make specific brain areas switch into action. When a specific brain area works to carry out it's specific function then that area takes in more oxygen. This tiny increase in oxygen uptake can be measured by an fMRI and as a result help a doctor avoid damaging a vital brain area during tumor removal.