UVA Radiology Visiting Professor Lecture — “Visualizing Vascular Mechanisms of Tissue Sodium Storage” with Dr. Rachelle Crescenzi

The lymphatic network is a central component of the circulatory system that is responsible for clearing macromolecular waste and maintaining sodium homeostasis. Lymphatics may have a significant role in a range of cardiovascular and metabolic diseases including hypertension, obesity, lymphedema, and salt sensitive blood pressure. However, studying lymphatic physiology in health and disease is challenging because of a lack of clinically feasible methods available with sensitivity to lymphatics. In this talk, Dr. Crescenzi will present recent developments in noninvasive magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) methods including MR lymphangiography and multi-nuclear 23Na sodium MRI, which demonstrate sensitivity for unilateral lymphedema of known origins. We’ll discuss how these tools inform vascular mechanisms of a disease with suspected lymphatic origins, lipedema, to meet clinical needs for early diagnostics and treatment evaluation.

About the Lecturer

Rachelle L. Crescenzi, PhD, is a translational imaging scientist and Assistant Professor in the Department of Radiology and Radiological Sciences at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC). She studied Physics at the University of Delaware and received a Bachelors of Science degree with honors in January 2009. She completed undergraduate internships at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the University of Pennsylvania where she was first introduced to radiology. In 2015, she earned her PhD in Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics from the University of Pennsylvania in the Center for Magnetic Resonance and Optical Imaging (CMROI). Her postdoctoral training in the Vanderbilt University Institute of Imaging Science (VUIIS) focused on clinical vascular imaging in patients with lymphatic disease. She was awarded a postdoctoral research fellowship through the Lipedema Foundation (2015-2017), and a career development award through the American Heart Association before joining the VUMC faculty in 2018.

Dr. Crescenzi’s research focuses on developing advanced imaging tools to address clinical needs for 1) objective diagnostic criteria for lipedema, 2) risk assessment for lymphedema and fibrosis secondary to lymph node removal, and 3) radiologic markers of salt sensitive blood pressure. Dr. Crescenzi is a member of the International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine (ISMRM, since 2009), the Fat Disorders Resource Society (FDRS, since 2015), the Lymphatic Education & Research Network (LE&RN, since 2015), the American Heart Association (AHA, since 2018), and The Obesity Society (TOS, since 2018).

For more information about this event, please contact Henry Lin-David.

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