Professional background

Francesco Carletti is a full-time consultant in diagnostic neuroradiology at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery (NHNN) in Queen Square and University College Hospital. He has broad diagnostic expertise in imaging the brain and spine using computerised tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

Francesco graduated from the University of Brescia (Italy) with a degree in Medicine and Surgery. He completed his training in radiology and neuroradiology with honours in Italy and received a PhD in Neuroimaging from King's College London (UK). Francesco joined NHNN in 2018, from the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford, where he was a consultant in diagnostic neuroradiology from 2013 to 2018.

Francesco is committed to quality assurance and improvement and is consultant lead of clinical governance in the Department of Neuroradiology. He chairs the radiology events and learning meetings in which radiological discrepancies and examples of excellence are reviewed. He is actively involved in teaching and coaching junior colleagues.

Specialties

Research interests

Francesco has been the recipient of awards from the Wellcome Trust and the Italian Society of Neuroradiology for his research in decoding the wiring diagrams of the brain. He has worked with businesses and universities in exploring the possibilities that advanced neuroimaging techniques (diffusion MRI, tractography and functional MRI) bring to patient care.

Publications

Francesco has published chapters in textbooks and numerous peer-reviewed articles in the field of neuroimaging.                                                                                                                           

Peer-reviewed articles:  

Paterson RW, Brown RL, Benjamin L, Nortley R, Wiethoff S, Bharucha T, Jayaseelan DL, Kumar G, Raftopoulos RE, Zambreanu L, Vivekanandam V, Khoo A, Geraldes R, Chinthapalli K, Boyd E, Tuzlali H, Price G, Christofi G, Morrow J, McNamara P, McLoughlin B, Lim ST, Mehta PR, Levee V, Keddie S, Yong W, Trip SA, Foulkes AJM, Hotton G, Miller TD, Everitt AD, Carswell C, Davies NWS, Yoong M, Attwell D, Sreedharan J, Silber E, Schott JM, Chandratheva A, Perry RJ, Simister R, Checkley A, Longley N, Farmer SF, Carletti F, Houlihan C, Thom M, Lunn MP, Spillane J, Howard R, Vincent A, Werring DJ, Hoskote C, Jäger HR, Manji H, Zandi MS; UCL Queen Square National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery COVID-19 Study Group. The emerging spectrum of COVID-19 neurology: clinical, radiological and laboratory findings. Brain. 2020 Jul 8:awaa240. doi: 10.1093/brain/awaa240. PMID: 32637987 

Mallas E, Carletti F, Chaddock CA, Shergill S, Woolley J, Picchioni MM, McDonald C, Toulopoulou T, Kravariti E, Kalidindi S, Bramon E, Murray R, Barker GJ, Prata DP. The impact of CACNA1C gene, and its epistasis with ZNF804A, on white matter microstructure in health, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Genes Brain Behav. 2017 Apr;16(4):479-488. doi: 10.1111/gbb.12355. Epub 2016 Nov 29. 

Chen JJ, Carletti F, McKean D, Young V, Quaghebeur G. MRI mimics of multiple sclerosis. Clin Radiol. 2016 Sep;71(9):815-27. 

Mallas EJ, Carletti F, Chaddock CA, Woolley J, Picchioni MM, Shergill SS, Kane F, Allin MP, Barker GJ, Prata DP. Genome-wide discovered psychosis-risk gene ZNF804A impacts on white matter microstructure in health, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. PeerJ. 2016 Feb 25;4:e1570. DOI: 10.7717/peerj.1570. eCollection 2016. 

Shaikh M, Dutt A, Broome MR, Vozmediano AG, Ranlund S, Diez A, Caseiro O, Lappin J, Amankwa S, Carletti F, Fusar-Poli P, Walshe M, Hall MH, Howes O, Ellett L, Murray RM, McGuire P, Valmaggia L, Bramon E. Sensory gating deficits in the attenuated psychosis syndrome. Schizophr Res. 2015 Feb;161(2-3):277-82. DOIi: 10.1016/j.schres.2014.12.021. Epub 2014 Dec 30. 

Crossley NA, Mechelli A, Scott J, Carletti F, Fox PT, McGuire P, Bullmore ET. The hubs of the human connectome are generally implicated in the anatomy of brain disorders. Brain, 2014 Aug;137(8):2382-2395. DOI: 10.1093/brain/awu132.  

Gasparotti R, Lodoli G, Carletti F, Garozzo D, Meoded A, Ferraresi S. Feasibility of Diffusion Tensor Tractography of Brachial Plexus Injuries at 1.5 T. Investigative Radiology, 48(2):104-12, Feb 2013; DOI: 10.1097/RLI.0b013e3182775267. 

Carletti F, Woolley J, Bhattacharyya S, Fusar-Poli P, Valmaggia L, Perez-Iglesias R, Broome M, Johns L, Bramon E, Johns L, Giampietro V, Williams SCR, Barker GJ, McGuire P. Alterations in white matter evident before the onset of psychosis. Schizophr Bull. Apr 2012. DOI: 10.1093/schbul/sbs053. 

Fusar-Poli P, Crossley N, Woolley J, Carletti F, Perez-Iglesias R, Broome M, Johns L, Tabraham P, Bramon E, McGuire P. Gray matter alterations related to P300 abnormalities in subjects at high risk for psychosis: longitudinal MRI-EEG study. Neuroimage, 1;55(1):320-8, Mar 2011. 

Fusar-Poli P, Placentino A, Carletti F, Landi P, Allen P, Surguladze S, Benedetti F, Abbamonte M, Gasparotti R, Barale F, Perez J, McGuire P, Politi PL. Functional atlas of emotional faces processing: a voxel-based meta-analysis of 105 functional magnetic resonance imaging studies. J Psychiatry Neurosci., 34(6):418-32, 2009. 

Fusar-Poli P, Placentino A, Carletti F, Allen P, Landi P, Abbamonte M, Barale F, Perez J, McGuire P, Politi PL. Laterality effect on emotional faces processing: ALE meta-analysis of evidence. Neurosci Lett., 452(3):262-7, Mar 2009. 

Gasparotti R, Valsecchi P, Carletti F, Galluzzo A, Liserre R, Cesana B, Sacchetti E. Reduced fractional anisotropy of corpus callosum in first-contact, antipsychotic drug-naive patients with schizophrenia. Schizophr Res., 108(1-3):41-8, Mar 2009. 

Book chapters:  

F Carletti. Neuronal and Mixed Glioneuronal Tumors, in F. Barkhof et al. (eds.), Clinical Neuroradiology, Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019 

F Bonneville, M Roques, and F Carletti. Tumors of the Sellar and Parasellar Region, in F. Barkhof et al. (eds.), Clinical Neuroradiology, Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019