ISMRM 21st Annual Meeting & Exhibition 20-26 April 2013 Salt Lake City, Utah, USA

SCIENTIFIC SESSION
Advanced Imaging for Dementia
 
Thursday 25 April 2013
Room 251 BCEF  10:30 - 12:30 Moderators: Marco Essig, Yukio Miki

10:30 0612.   Cognitive Reserve Modulates the Defaul Mode Network in Patients with MCI and AD
Marco Bozzali1, Claire Dowling2, Laura Serra3, Barbara Spano'3, Carlo Caltagirone4,5, and Mara Cercignani6
1Neuroimaging Laboratory, Santa Lucia Foundation, Rome, Italy, 2School of Life Sciences, University of Sussex, Brighton, United Kingdom, 3Neuroimaging Laboratory, IRCSS Santa Lucia, Rome, Italy, 4Dept of Clinical and Behavioural Neurology, IRCCS Santa Lucia Foundation, Rome, Italy, 5Dept. of NeuroScience, University of Rome "Tor Vergata", Rome, Italy, 6CISC, Brighton & Sussex Medical School, Brighton, United Kingdom

 
This paper investigates the relationship between functional connectivity of the default mode network (DMN) and "cognitive reserve", measured by education and occupation, in patients with MCI and AD. Results support the hypothesis that modulation of connectivity occurs in the posterior cingulate, one of the key nodes of the DMN.

 
10:42 0613.   Structural Neuroimaging Phenotype of Dementia in Adult Survivors of Childhood ALL
Wilburn E. Reddick1, John O. Glass1, Nan Zhang2, Ronald C. Peterson3, Larry E. Kun1, Ching-Hon Pui4, Melissa M. Hudson4, Leslie L. Robison5, Kevin R. Krull5, and Gregory T. Armstrong5
1Radiological Sciences, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, Memphis, TN, United States, 2Biostatistics, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, Memphis, TN, United States, 3Neurology, The Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, United States, 4Oncology, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, Memphis, TN, United States, 5Epidemiology & Cancer Control, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, Memphis, TN, United States

 
The objective of this study was to determine whether neuroanatomical characteristics of dementia were associated with memory impairment in a unique cohort of 85 long-term survivors of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia treated with cranial irradiation. Patients were 27-51 years of age (mean 36.5plus-or-minus sign6.2 years) at the time of imaging. Survivors with memory impairment demonstrated a structural neuroimaging phenotype characterized by elevated diffusivity in the temporal-parietal memory network, atypical cortical thinning of the medial orbito-frontal and parietal regions, and smaller hippocampal volumes in regions CA2-3 and CA4-Dentate Gyrus consistent with early aging and increased risk for additional memory impairment.

 
10:54 0614.   
Free-Water Correction Reveals Wide Spread Differences Between Stable and Converting MCI Subjects
Klaus Hermann Fritzsche1,2, Carl-Fredrik Westin1, Hans-Peter Meinzer2, Bram Stieltjes3, and Ofer Pasternak1
1Laboratory of Mathematics in Imaging, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States, 2Medical and Biological Informatics, German Cancer Research Center, Heidelberg, BW, Germany,3Quantitative imaging based disease characterization, German Cancer Research Center, Heidelberg, BW, Germany

 
We applied the diffusion MRI free-water elimination (FWE) technique to compare a group of MCI patients that converted to AD with a group of patients that remain stable MCI. We find that FWE increases the sensitivity of recognizing very early abnormalities related to the development of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Further more, with the additional information in the FWE model we were able to classify these alterations as being microstructural as opposed to atrophic or macroscopic in their nature.

 
11:06 0615.   ROI-Based Analysis of Diffusional Kurtosis Estimates for Identification of MCI-Patients at High Risk for Conversion to Alzheimers Disease in a Heterogeneous MCI Cohort
Daniel Svärd1,2, Filip Szczepankiewicz3, Jimmy Lätt2, Markus Nilsson4, Sebastian Palmqvist5,6, Katarina Nägga5, Oskar Hansson5,6, and Danielle van Westen1,2
1Diagnostic Radiology, Clinical Sciences Lund, Lund University, Lund, -, Sweden, 2Center for Medical Imaging and Physiology, Skane University Hospital, Lund, Lund, -, Sweden, 3Medical Radiation Physics, Lund University, Lund, -, Sweden, 4Lund BioImaging Center, Lund University, Lund, -, Sweden, 5Clinical Memory Research Unit, Department of Clinical Sciences Malmö, Malmö, -, Sweden,6Department of Neurology, Skane University Hospital Lund, Lund, -, Sweden

 
The potential of Diffusional Kurtosis Imaging (DKI) for differentiation of patients with pathological CSF (MCIp-CSF) from MCI-patients without pathological CSF (MCInp-CSF) and from controls was probed for using ROI-based analysis. Diffusivity changes were present in some areas. Kurtosis parameters MK and RK did not outperform diffusion parameters MD and FA.

 
11:18 0616.   Parametric MRI Reveals Vascular Effects of Antibodies to the lower case Greek alpha1-Adrenergic Receptor by Demonstrating a Reduction in Relative Cerebral Blood Volume (RCBV)
Andreas Pohlmann1, Babette Dieringer1, Peter Karczewski2, Natali Wisbrun3, Irina Palatnik1, Christina Eichhorn4, Petra Hempel2, Rudolf Kunze5, Marion Bimmler6, and Thoralf Niendorf1,7
1Berlin Ultrahigh Field Facility (B.U.F.F.), Max-Delbrueck Center for Molecular Medicine, Berlin, Germany, 2E.R.D.E.-AAK-Diagnostik GmbH, Berlin, Germany, 3Animal Facilities, Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine, Berlin, Germany, 4IT Department, Max-Delbrueck Center for Molecular Medicine, Berlin, Germany, 5E.R.D.E. e.V., Berlin, Germany, 6Autoimmunity and G Protein-Coupled Receptors, Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine, Berlin, Germany, 7Experimental and Clinical Research Center, a cooperation between the Charité Medical Faculty and the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine, Berlin, Germany

 
Evidence suggests Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) may be primarily a vascular disease. Recently, agonistic autoantibodies to the lower case Greek alpha1-adrenergic receptor (lower case Greek alpha1-AR) were found to cause impairments of blood flow in larger vessels (TOF-MRA) in the rat brain. This work examines the long-term effects of α1-AR antibodies on relative cerebral blood volume (rCBV) in rats. Estimation of rCBV by ΔR2*/ΔR2 mapping in conjunction with an intravascular contrast agent demonstrated a significant reduction in rCBV for lower case Greek alpha1-AR antibody treatment. This data underpins the pathogenic significance of autoimmunity to the lower case Greek alpha1-AR for AD and vascular dementia.

 
11:30 0617.   Assessing Arterial Spin Labeled Perfusion MRI as an Early-Alzheimer’s Disease Marker Using the ADNI 2 Data
Ze Wang1, Sandhitsu Das2, David Wolk3, and John A. Detre3
1Psychiatry, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, 2Radiology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, 3Neurology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States

 
Noninvasively measuring the quantitative blood flow, ASL perfusion MRI can potentially be used as marker for progressive neurodegenerative disease like AD. Using the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative ASL data, we showed the first evidence of the sensitivity of ASL CBF to prodromal and early AD in a multi-site context; ASL CBF appeared to decrease inversely with degree of impairment which is consistent with prior work with FDG PET.

 
11:42 0618.   Regional CBF in Patients with AD and MCI: Effect of Apolipoprotein Epsilon4 Allele
Geon-Ho Jahng1, Kyung-Mi Lee2, Sun-Mi Kim3, Min-Ji Kim3, Eo-Jin Hwang3, Hyug-Gi Kim4, Hak-Young Rhee5, Chang-Woo Ryu1, Wook Jin1, Dal-Mo Yang1, and Ji Seon Park6
1Radiology, Kyung Hee University Hospital at Gangdong, Kyung Hee University, Seoul, Seoul, Korea, 2Radiology, Graduate College of of Medicine, Kyung Hee University, Seoul, Seoul, Korea,3Radiology, Kyung Hee University Hospital at Gangdong, Seoul, Seoul, Korea, 4Biomedical Engineering, Graduate College of Electronics and Information, Kyung Hee University, Youngin, Gyeonggi-do, Korea, 5Neurology, Kyung Hee University Hospital at Gangdong, Kyung Hee University, Seoul, Seoul, Korea, 6Radiology, Kyung Hee University Hospital, Kyung Hee University, Seoul, Seoul, Korea

 
To evaluate the effect of apolipoprotein E (APOE) epsilon 4 allele on regional cerebral perfusion (rCBF) changes, pulsed arterial spin labeling (ASL) imaging and isotropic volumetric T1-weighted imaging were scanned in 25 subjects with AD, 25 with amnestic mild cognitive impairment(MCI) and 25 cognitively normal(CN) subjects. All subjects were divided into carrier or noncarriers of the epsilon4 allele. In each subject group, we also evaluated the rCBF change between carrier and noncarrier groups. rCBF values were significantly reduced in the CN and AD groups, but increased in MCI in the carriers of the epsilon4 allele.

 
11:54 0619.   
Characterization of CMRO2, Resting CBF, and Cerebrovascular Reactivity in Patients with Very Early Stage of Alzheimer’s Disease
Binu Panjikattil Thomas1,2, Min Sheng1, Benjamin Tseng3, Peiying Liu1, Kristin Martin-Cook4, Munro Cullum5, Myron Weiner5, Benjamin Levine3, Rong Zhang3, and Hanzhang Lu1
1Advanced Imaging Research Center, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, Texas, United States, 2Department of Bioengineering, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center/University of Texas at Arlington, Arlington, Texas, United States, 3Institute of Exercise and Environmental Medicine, Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital, Dallas, Texas, United States,4Department of Neurology and Neurotherapeutics, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, Texas, United States, 5Department of Psychiatry, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, Texas, United States

 
Early-Mild-Cognitive-Impairment (MCI) represents a pre-clinical form of Alzheimer’s Disease (AD). In this study, we used several MRI modalities to characterize the neurobiology in early-MCI. We first used a novel technique to measure the brain’s energy “budget”, denoted by cerebral metabolic rate of oxygen (CMRO2), and observed that early-MCI showed 12.7% reduction compared to age-matched controls. Next, we used regional CBF to probe regions with most pronounced deficit and identified precuneus/posterior-cingulate as the foci. Finally, we compared cerebrovascular reactivity between MCI and control groups, data suggest that reactivity in early-MCI was relatively intact, indicating a metabolic/neural cause for the CBF deficit.

 
12:06 0620.   Hippocampal Volumes in Subjects at Risk of Alzheimer's Disease with a New Registration Template
Bernd Merkel1,2, Nicola T. Lautenschlager3, Christopher Steward1,2, Lucy Vivash4, Bob Tran1, David Ames5, Kay Cox6, Elizabeth Cyarto5, Kathryn Ellis3, Pramit Phal1, Matthew Sharman7, Cassandra Szoeke8, and Patricia M. Desmond1,2
1University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia, 2Radiology, Royal Melbourne Hospital, Parkville, Victoria, Australia, 3University of Melbourne, Kew, Victoria, Australia, 4Medicine, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia, 5National Ageing Research Institute, Parkville, Victoria, Australia, 6University of Western Australia, Perth, Western Australia, Australia, 7Edith Cowan University, Joondalup, Western Australia, Australia, 8CSIRO, Parkville, Victoria, Australia

 
In Alzheimer’s Disease (AD), the hippocampus is one of the first regions in the brain being affected. The loss of hippocampal volume over time and its measurement with MRI has been proven a potential valuable biomarker for early diagnosis. However, accurate determination is still challenging. We created a new registration template based on healthy elderly people and calculated hippocampal volumes of patients with subjective memory complaints (SMC) and mild cognitive impairments (MCI), which are under higher risk of developing AD. These results were compared with manual segmentation as well as widely accepted software packages’ volumes.

 
12:18 0621.   Automatic Detection of Cerebral Microbleed in SWI Using Radon Transform
Amir Fazlollahi1,2, Fabrice Meriaudau2, Luca Giancardo2,3, Patricia M. Desmond4, Victor L. Villemagne5, Christopher C. Rowe5, Paul Yates5, Olivier Salvado1, Bourgeat Pierrick1, and the AIBL Research Group6
1The Australian E-Health Research Centre-BioMedIA, Brisbane, QLD, Australia, 2Laboratoire Le2I, Université de Bourgogne, Le Creusot, France, 3Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Genoa, Italy,4Department of Radiology, The Melbourne Brain Centre at Royal Melbourne Hospital, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC, Australia, 5Department of Nuclear Medicine and Centre for PET, Austin Hospital, Melbourne, VIC, Australia, 6http://www.aibl.csiro.au/, Australia, Australia

 
Since presence and number of cerebral microbleeds (CMBs) have come to attention as a potential biomarker, an automated scheme to improve visualization is required. In this work, a new approach of CMB identification in SWIs is presented and compared to visual rating. The method relies on two main steps: a 3D anisotropic multi-scale approach that extracts size and centre of all potential CMBs within the image, and feature extraction using the Radon Transform for final classification using a random forest classifier. The novelty of the technique consists in combining Radon transform and multiscale analysis to obtain robust feature descriptors.