Scott McNally, MD, PhD

Languages Spoken: English

My goal as a neuroradiologist is to provide the best diagnostic imaging for patients with a variety of neurological diseases. My primary interest is in cerebrovascular disease and stroke. My roles include optimizing neurovascular imaging protocols, serving as co-moderator of our multidisciplinary neurovascular conference, and providing resident and fellow education based on the latest clinical research. Our neuroradiology section works together with neurology, neurosurgery and vascular surgery to detect and treat patients with neurovascular diseases. Our vascular imaging techniques include ultrasound, CT and MR angiography, CT and MR perfusion, and we are one of the few locations in the nation to offer dedicated vessel wall imaging. Our collaborations with the Utah Center for Advanced Imaging Research (UCAIR) allow us to bring the latest imaging innovations from bench to bedside for the best diagnosis and treatment of stroke and vascular disease.

Our group’s scientific mission is to develop and test advanced imaging techniques to better detect vessel wall pathology, with the overall aim to improve diagnosis and treatment of cardiovascular disease. Our highly innovative team includes neuroscientists, clinicians and MRI physicists who are focused on vascular pathophysiology. Together, we have many years of prior and current funding through the NIH, RSNA, AHA and VA.

For high-resolution neurovascular imaging, we have developed motion-robust MRI sequences and high signal-to-noise coils. These allow optimal characterization of unstable plaque components, arterial injury and vasculitis throughout the head and neck. We have made important sequence modifications to decrease motion artifact, preserve interrater reliability and detect various plaque components with histologic validation. Importantly, we have found specific plaque components such as intraplaque hemorrhage are highly predictive of stroke independent of stenosis. Using vessel wall MRI, we are currently investigating the relative impact of vessel wall pathology and hemodynamics on stroke risk, memory and cognitive status.