Student represents Medical School in Vienna

Saeed Alqahtani, a PhD student from the Medical Imaging department, presented his research at the European Congress of Radiology (ECR) conference. His research was conducted under lead supervisor Professor Karen Knapp.

Saeed’s study quantified the fat and lean mass of 264 female participants of different ages and BMI groups. Currently, making representations of the interior of a body for clinical analysis – medical imaging – is difficult for some obese patients. The study aimed to underpin a construction of obese phantoms (physical models of the body) to underpin research into the optimum radiation dose and image quality for obese patients.

The research found that lean mass increases along with fat mass – both have different properties when x-rayed, and so phantoms needed to be constructed to reflect the right amount of lean mass and fat in each BMI group. Previous research has attempted to create phantoms, but they account for only fat mass, necessitating the importance of the research.

Saeed, 30, said: “After completing the abstract, I sent it to my supervisor and she was the one that encouraged me to submit it. I thought it would only get accepted as a poster - I was shocked when I was chosen to give a presentation in such a respected conference with more than 20,000 delegates. It was a great experience to present my work and this has motivated me to work harder and given me a new-found confidence in the work that I am currently doing. I am grateful to my supervisors and to the team who helped make the study possible.”

The ECR is the annual meeting of the European Society of Radiology and is an innovative conference within the scientific community.