Shareef Rabaa utilizes state of the art imaging and techniques in proving brain damage. By working with leading doctors in the field of brain damage, Shareef fights to put his clients in a position where they are properly diagnosed and treated. The correct use of brain scans can be a powerful weapon in the fight for health AND the fight for justice.

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There are various brain scanning techniques that are known and used in the medical and legal fields to diagnose brain injury. These include:

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Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI):

The MRI scanner is a tunnel-shaped piece of equipment. The patient lies on a table that slides into the scanner, where a magnetic field surrounds the head. Signals are generated from the magnetic field and fed into a computer, which creates a picture of the brain.

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MRI with DTI:

DTI (Diffuse Tensor Imaging) is a version of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).  It is most useful for visualizing the brain’s white matter, which contains the fibers that connect nerve cells.  DTI is more complicated than MRI in terms of data analysis, but most conventional MRI scanners are equipped to run DTI scans.

 

CT:
Computed tomography (CT) scanning builds up a picture of the brain based on the differential absorption of X-rays. During a CT scan the subject lies on a table that slides in and out of a hollow, cylindrical apparatus. An x-ray source rides on a ring around the inside of the tube, with its beam aimed at the subjects head. After passing through the head, the beam is sampled by one of the many detectors that line the machine’s circumference. Images made using x-rays depend on the absorption of the beam by the tissue it passes through. Bone and hard tissue absorb x-rays well, air and water absorb very little and soft tissue is somewhere in between. Thus, CT scans reveal the gross features of the brain but do not resolve its structure well.

 

PET:
Positron Emission Tomography (PET) uses trace amounts of short-lived radioactive material to map functional processes in the brain. When the material undergoes radioactive decay a positron is emitted, which can be picked up be the detector. Areas of high radioactivity are associated with brain activity.

 

EEG:
Electroencephalography (EEG) is the measurement of the electrical activity of the brain by recording from electrodes placed on the scalp. The resulting traces are known as an electroencephalogram (EEG) and represent an electrical signal from a large number of neurons. EEGs are frequently used in experimentation because the process is non-invasive to the research subject. The EEG is capable of detecting changes in electrical activity in the brain on a millisecond-level. It is one of the few techniques available that has such high temporal resolution.

 

MEG:
Magnetoencephalography (MEG) is an imaging technique used to measure the magnetic fields produced by electrical activity in the brain via extremely sensitive devices known as SQUIDs. These measurements are commonly used in both research and clinical settings. There are many uses for the MEG, including assisting surgeons in localizing a pathology, assisting researchers in determining the function of various parts of the brain, neurofeedback, and others.

 

fMRI:
Functional magnetic resonance imaging, or fMRI, is a technique for measuring brain activity. It works by detecting the changes in blood oxygenation and flow that occur in response to neural activity – when a brain area is more active it consumes more oxygen and to meet this increased demand blood flow increases to the active area. fMRI can be used to produce activation maps showing which parts of the brain are involved in a particular mental process.

 

SPECT:
A single-photon emission computerized tomography (SPECT) scan lets your doctor analyze the function of some of your brain. A SPECT scan is a type of nuclear imaging test, which means it uses a radioactive substance and a special camera to create 3-D pictures.  While imaging tests like X-rays can show what the structures inside your body look like, a SPECT scan produces images that show how your organs work. A SPECT scan can show what areas of your brain are more active or less active.