Abnormal Cerebral Ventricular Change in Alzheimer's Disease Recorded with Cardiac Gated MRI: A Preliminary Report

Abstract

We compare high-resolution cardiac gated brain magnetic resonance imaging of 19 young healthy subjects with a small group of demented subjects - mainly probable senile dementia of the Alzheimer type (SDAT) - with varying degrees of ventricular enlargement. Computer-measured ventricular volume demonstrated cyclic ventricular size variations in all subjects. During cardiac systole, the lateral ventricles vary in size, an average of 10% in the young cohort (0.109 ± 0.061); the lateral ventricles enlarge, often after an initial decrease in size. A later volume expansion may occur, but the amount varies between subjects. One healthy 60-year-old subject, whose ventricles were slightly larger than those of the younger individuals, and all of the demented subjects, had less enlargement when compared to the average young subject. Two demented subjects with ventriculomegaly had small fluctuations: one had only 6.9% variation, the other subject with larger ventricles had no enlargement. One individual with SDAT had more than a 24% volume change while another subject''s increase was delayed. Our results suggest a complex interplay between blood flow, brain compliance and CSF outflow resistance. This small study further suggests that the choroid plexus plays an important role in systole-related lateral ventricular changes, that changes in choroid plexus function may occur in hydrocephalus and that CSF dynamics may be impaired in SDAT disease.

Mapping correlations between ventricular expansion and CSF amyloid and tau biomarkers in 240 subjects with Alzheimer's disease, mild cognitive impairment and elderly controls

“…Abnormally fast ventricular dilation over time has also been linked to the accumulation of AD pathological markers such as cortical neurofibrillary tangles and amyloid plaques (Silbert et al, 2003), and to rates of cognitive decline in AD patients and controls (Adak et al, 2004). Ventricular changes reflect atrophy in surrounding structures (Powell et al, 1991), providing somewhat indirect assessments of tissue reduction, that correlate with cognitive deterioration. Some studies suggest that ventricular enlargement is quite highly correlated with gray matter atrophy but not with white matter hyperintensities (Hsu et al, 2002).…”

Automated ventricular mapping with multi-atlas fluid image alignment reveals genetic effects in Alzheimer's disease

“…The ventricular system is a CSF-filled structure in the center of the brain, surrounded by gray and white matter structures whose volume and integrity are affected by neurodegenerative diseases (Powell et al, 1991). Ventricular changes reflect atrophy in surrounding structures, so ventricular measures and surface-based maps provide sensitive assessments of tissue reduction that correlate with cognitive deterioration in illnesses such as Alzheimer's disease (AD) Carmichael et al, 2006), HIV/AIDS and schizophrenia (Styner et al, 2005;Narr et al, 2001Narr et al, , 2004, and offer a potential approach One promising segmentation approach nonlinearly registers each brain MR volume to a target image volume in which the structures of interest have been labeled and parameterized; the labels are then projected onto the unlabeled data using the computed geometric transformations (Collins et al, 1994;Dawant et al, 1999;Fischl et al, 2002;Svarer et al, 2005;Heckemann et al, 2006).…”