About Dr. Middleton
 

Dr. Middleton’s role at Thomas Jefferson University comprises both clinical and research activities in MRI at the Jefferson Integrated Magnetic Resonance Imaging Center (JIMRIC).  Clinically, he oversees all BOLD fMRI studies for presurgical planning in tumor surgery along with the Neuroradiology specialists.  This includes patient training, data acquisition, post-processing analysis, and training of post-doctoral and graduate students in BOLD acquisition and analysis.  As part of this work, Dr. Middleton has made continued efforts to improve the quality and utility of the Center’s data to ensure best possible patient care. These improvements include optimizations of image post-processing and novel visualization methods for language mapping.

In other research, Dr. Middleton’s work has focused on advanced imaging, including diffusion tensor imaging (DTI); structural imaging acquisition of the spinal cord in healthy and injured subjects, as well as post processing techniques (e.g. motion correction, artifact estimation, tensor estimation) for spinal cord data. Analysis of spinal cord data with respect to diffusion and morphological characteristics has been another of Dr. Middleton’s concentrations.

Middleton’s major projects in spinal cord include:

• the multi-year collection of DTI spinal cord data for pediatric subjects (both with spinal cord injury and typically developing)
• the development and programming of a spinal cord DTI analysis software package which has been used in the lab to analyze hundreds of DTI scans
•  the adaptation of existing image processing techniques and tools for spinal cord applications, and
• the optimization of metal artifact reduction techniques for spine implants.

The spinal cord is challenging to image and relatively understudied, when compared with the brain for advanced MRI techniques. Dr. Middleton’s goal is to contribute to and support the growing interest in spinal cord imaging in the international research and clinical communities.

Other Publications

• Middleton DM, Mohamed FB, Barakat N, Hunter LN, Shellikeri S, Finsterbusch J, Faro SH, Shah P, Samdani AF, Mulcahey MJ. An investigation of motion correction algorithms for pediatric spinal cord DTI in healthy subjects and patients with spinal cord injury. Magn Reson Imag 2014 Jun;32(5):433-9. PMID: 24629515
  
  
• Fisher J, Krisa L, Middleton DM, et al. Brain White Matter Abnormality Induced by Chronic Spinal Cord Injury in the Pediatric Population: A Preliminary Tract-based Spatial Statistic Study. Topics in Spinal Cord Injury Rehabilitation 2020 (in revision)
  

• Conklin CJ, Middleton DM, Alizadeh M, et al. Spatially selective 2D RF inner field of view (iFOV) diffusion kurtosis imaging (DKI) of the pediatric spinal cord. Neuroimage Clin 2016 Jan 12;11:61-7. PMID: 26909329 PMCID: PMC4735660