Abstract
Objectives: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the feasibility and whether synthetic MRI can benefit diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease (AD).Materials and Methods: Eighteen patients and eighteen age-matched normal controls (NCs) underwent MR examination. The mini-mental state examination (MMSE) scores were obtained from all patients. The whole brain volumetric characteristics, T1, T2, and proton density (PD) values of different cortical and subcortical regions were obtained. The volumetric characteristics and brain regional relaxation values between AD patients and NCs were compared using independent-samples t-test. The correlations between these quantitative parameters and MMSE score were assessed by the Pearson correlation in AD patients.Results: Although the larger volume of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), lower brain parenchymal volume (BPV), and the ratio of brain parenchymal volume to intracranial volume (BPV/ICV) were found in AD patients compared with NCs, there were no significant differences (p > 0.05). T1 values of right insula cortex and T2 values of left hippocampus and right insula cortex were significantly higher in AD patients than in NCs, but T1 values of left caudate showed a reverse trend (p < 0.05). As the MMSE score decreased in AD patients, the BPV and BPV/ICV decreased, while the volume of CSF and T1 values of bilateral insula cortex and bilateral hippocampus as well as T2 values of bilateral hippocampus increased (p < 0.05).Conclusion: Synthetic MRI not only provides more information to differentiate AD patients from normal controls, but also reflects the disease severity of AD.
Highlights
Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a type of progressive neurodegenerative disease, which brings a growing burden to the family and the society in recent years (Alzheimer’s Dementia, 2020)
Results: the larger volume of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), lower brain parenchymal volume (BPV), and the ratio of brain parenchymal volume to intracranial volume (BPV/ICV) were found in AD patients compared with normal controls (NCs), there were no significant differences (p > 0.05)
As the mini-mental state examination (MMSE) score decreased in AD patients, the BPV and BPV/ICV decreased, while the volume of CSF and T1 values of bilateral insula cortex and bilateral hippocampus as well as T2 values of bilateral hippocampus increased (p < 0.05)
Summary
Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a type of progressive neurodegenerative disease, which brings a growing burden to the family and the society in recent years (Alzheimer’s Dementia, 2020). It is challenging to diagnose AD in early diagnosis, due to its occult onset, no specific symptom and image finding. While cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) examination and amyloid positron emission tomography (PET) have been proposed as promising approaches for early detection of AD (Weiner et al, 2015), the wide application of these methods is limited by their high cost, radiation, and invasion. As a non-invasive and non-radiative imaging technique, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) provides an alternative to explore neuroimaging biomarkers for early detection and diagnosis of AD (Blamire, 2018). Quantitative MRI has been shown to have a potential value in the central nervous system. Quantitative relaxometry can potentially reflect the changes in tissue characteristics (Deoni, 2010; Callaghan et al, 2014; Knight et al, 2016; Blamire, 2018). Conventional acquisition of T1 and T2 relaxation times is time-consuming (Bojorquez et al, 2017), and misregistration will be found among different imaging sequences because of the patient motion
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