Room 251 BCEF

10:30 - 12:30

Moderators:

Marco Essig, Yukio Miki

Marco Bozzali¹, Claire Dowling², Laura Serra³, Barbara Spano'³, Carlo Caltagirone^4,5, and Mara Cercignani^6
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.

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. Armstrong^5
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 36.56.2 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.

Klaus Hermann Fritzsche^1,2, Carl-Fredrik Westin¹, Hans-Peter Meinzer², Bram Stieltjes³, and Ofer Pasternak^1
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.

Daniel Svärd^1,2, Filip Szczepankiewicz³, Jimmy Lätt², Markus Nilsson⁴, Sebastian Palmqvist^5,6, Katarina Nägga⁵, Oskar Hansson^5,6, and Danielle van Westen^1,2
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.

Andreas Pohlmann¹, Babette Dieringer¹, Peter Karczewski², Natali Wisbrun³, Irina Palatnik¹, Christina Eichhorn⁴, Petra Hempel², Rudolf Kunze⁵, Marion Bimmler⁶, and Thoralf Niendorf^1,7
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 1-adrenergic receptor (1-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 1-AR antibody treatment. This data underpins the pathogenic significance of autoimmunity to the 1-AR for AD and vascular dementia.

Ze Wang¹, Sandhitsu Das², David Wolk³, and John A. Detre^3
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.

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 Park^6
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.

Binu Panjikattil Thomas^1,2, Min Sheng¹, Benjamin Tseng³, Peiying Liu¹, Kristin Martin-Cook⁴, Munro Cullum⁵, Myron Weiner⁵, Benjamin Levine³, Rong Zhang³, and Hanzhang Lu^1
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.

Bernd Merkel^1,2, Nicola T. Lautenschlager³, Christopher Steward^1,2, Lucy Vivash⁴, Bob Tran¹, David Ames⁵, Kay Cox⁶, Elizabeth Cyarto⁵, Kathryn Ellis³, Pramit Phal¹, Matthew Sharman⁷, Cassandra Szoeke⁸, and Patricia M. Desmond^1,2
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.

Amir Fazlollahi^1,2, Fabrice Meriaudau², Luca Giancardo^2,3, Patricia M. Desmond⁴, Victor L. Villemagne⁵, Christopher C. Rowe⁵, Paul Yates⁵, Olivier Salvado¹, Bourgeat Pierrick¹, and the AIBL Research Group^6
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.