Quantitative MRI and Detection of Amyloid Plaques in Alzheimer’s

Early detection of Alzheimer’s may benefit from small voxel-sizes and enhancement of contrast at high field. By direct comparison with histology, our results suggest that amyloid plaque can be directly observed at 14.1T, thus paving the way for clinical applications at 9.4T and below.

Quantitative mapping of magnetic susceptibility (QSM) and the effective transverse relaxation time (R2*) of ex vivo tissue samples were performed at 14.1T with high-resolution techniques and at 9.4T using clinical measurement protocols. Significant differences between healthy controls and patients were found. QSM reflects amyloid plaques ascertained by histology of the same specimens and allows quantification of the amyloid plaque load. Potentially this method could be used for non-invasive diagnosis of Alzheimer’s in vivo at 9.4T, a hypothesis that we are currently investigating.

Tuzzi, E., Balla, D.Z., Loureiro, J.R.A., Neumann, M., Laske, C., Pohmann, R., Preische, O., Scheffler, K., Hagberg, G.E.:
Ultra-High Field MRI in Alzheimer’s Disease: Effective Transverse Relaxation Rate and Quantitative Susceptibility Mapping of Human Brain In Vivo and Ex Vivo compared to Histology.
. J. Alzheimer’s Dis. 73, 1481–1499, 2020.
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