Kenneth Kwong, PhD, has been conducting magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) research for more than 30 years with expertise in diffusion (R.1), functional imaging (R.2) and perfusion imaging (R.3). He was one of the earliest researchers to explore MR diffusion imaging of healthy subjects and patients. His team presented the first MR human diffusion anisotropy result in a conference paper, in 1988 at the annual meeting of the Society of Magnetic Resonance (R.1). He conducted the first successful human functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) experiment utilizing intrinsic blood oxygenation level dependent (BOLD) signal (R.2). He was the first to apply MRI selective and nonselective inversion pulses for arterial spin labeling for perfusion imaging (R.3). He maintained a longstanding collaboration with Dr. Kathleen Hui on neuroimaging of peripheral nerve stimulation such as acupuncture/needling intervention. His current work includes non-invasive measurement of heme oxygenase-1 for autoimmune and inflammatory markers; a collaboration with Dr. Chan on brain-body interaction of respiratory gas exchange metrics; and collaborations with different teams on developing new imaging techniques to discover new brain markers for traumatic brain injury, atrial fibrillation and many other challenging disorders.
R.1 First mapping of white matter tract anisotropy by MRI diffusion (1988)
MR diffusion mapping of anisotropy of white matter tracts at the internal capsule, an accidental discovery when Dr. Kwong was imaged with head prone as well as lying on his side. Anisotropy discovery was reported by Dr. Daisy Chien in an ISMRM abstract in 1988. This anisotropy itself is the fundamental principle underlying the modern method of MRI tractography and structural connectomics (the in vivo visualization the axonal fibers that connect neurons in the brain). MR diffusion anisotropy is an extremely powerful tool to characterize brain tissue deficits in all sorts of neuronal disorders. Our team including Drs. Daisy Chien and Ferdinando Buonanno used MRI diffusion to measure chronic results of ischemic stroke.
Chien D, Buxton RB, Kwong KK, Brady TJ, Rosen BR. MR diffusion imaging of the human brain. J Comput Assist Tomogr. 1990 Jul-Aug;14(4):514-20.
R.2 First discovery of intrinsic contrast of deoxyhemoglobin to be used for measurement of brain functions
First discovery of non-invasive in-flow weighted perfusion measurement of fMRI, launching the use of arterial spin labeling in functional imaging (1991). That discovery started a new era of non-invasive functional MRI of the brain.
Kwong KK, Belliveau JW, Chesler DA, Goldberg IE, Weisskoff RM, Poncelet BP, Kennedy DN, Hoppel BE, Cohen MS, Turner R, et al. Dynamic magnetic resonance imaging of human brain activity during primary sensory stimulation. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1992 Jun 15;89(12):5675-9.
R.3. First application of MRI selective and nonselective inversion pulses for arterial spin labeling for perfusion imaging
Kwong KK, Chesler DA, Weisskoff RM, Rosen BR. Perfusion MR Imaging, in “Proc., SMR, 2nd Annual Meeting, San Francisco, 1994,” p. 1005.
Kwong KK. Functional magnetic resonance imaging with echo planar imaging. Magn Reson Q. 1995 Mar;11(1):1-20. Review.
Kwong KK, Chesler DA, Weisskoff RM, Donahue KM, Davis TL, Ostergaard L, Campbell TA, Rosen BR. MR perfusion studies with T1-weighted echo planar imaging. Magn Reson Med. 1995 Dec;34(6):878-87.
Education
PhD in High Energy Physics, University of California, Riverside
Select Publications
1. Kwong KK, McKinstry RC, Chien D, Crawley AP, Pearlman JD, Rosen BR. CSF-suppressed quantitative single-shot diffusion imaging. Magn Reson Med. 1991 Sep;21(1):157-63.
2. Kwong KK, Belliveau JW, Chesler DA, Goldberg IE, Weisskoff RM, Poncelet BP, Kennedy DN, Hoppel BE, Cohen MS, Turner R, et al. Dynamic magnetic resonance imaging of human brain activity during primary sensory stimulation. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1992 Jun 15;89(12):5675-9.
3. Kwong KK, Chesler DA, Weisskoff RM, Donahue KM, Davis TL, Ostergaard L, Campbell TA, Rosen BR. MR perfusion studies with T1-weighted echo planar imaging. Magn Reson Med. 1995 Dec;34(6):878-87.
Highlights
More recent work includes bioluminescence imaging of heme oxygenase-1 upregulation in transgenic mice with the Gua Sha procedure.