Arterial spin labelling at 3-T MR imaging for detection of individuals with Alzheimer’s disease

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine whether arterial spin labelling (ASL) at 3-T MR imaging can be used to discriminate individuals with Alzheimer's disease (AD) from cognitively normal subjects. Twenty AD patients and 23 cognitively normal control subjects were studied using ASL on a 3-T MR imager. Absolute regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) maps were calculated. In addition, normalized rCBF maps were obtained using CBF in the sensorimotor cortex for normalization. A voxel-wise comparison of these rCBF maps between the AD and control groups was performed using the two-sample t test. Individuals with AD were discriminated from control subjects based on mean rCBF values within a region-of-interest defined by the t test, and the discriminating performance was evaluated by the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis. Comparisons of both absolute and normalized rCBF maps revealed areas of significant hypoperfusion caused by the effects of AD in the bilateral precunei and posterior cingulate gyri. ROC analyses resulted in area under the curve (AUC) values of 0.861 to 0.877 for absolute and 0.910 to 0.932 for normalized rCBF. Our results suggest that ASL at 3-T MR imaging can be used to help discriminate individuals with AD from normal subjects.

Cerebral Arterial Bolus Arrival Time is Prolonged in Multiple Sclerosis and Associated with Disability

“…Alzheimer's disease, where reduction in gray matter CBF, thought to be secondary to neuroaxonal loss from neurodegeneration, is not accompanied by alteration in BAT. 20,22 As prolongation of BAT represents reduction in arterial flow velocity, prolonged BAT in deep gray matter could indicate CBF was reduced without commensurate reduction in arterial Significance assessed using regression with co-variates of age, gender, and brain parenchymal fraction. Bold values are significant at Po0.05.…”

MR Imaging–Based Analysis of Glioblastoma Multiforme: Estimation ofIDH1Mutation Status

“…8 ASL is increasingly recognized as a noninvasive method for quantitative CBF measurement for assessing stroke, neurodegenerative diseases, and brain tumors. [8][9][10][11][12][13][14] ADC measurement is a widely used method.…”

Clinical Application of 3D Arterial Spin-Labeled Brain Perfusion Imaging for Alzheimer Disease: Comparison with Brain Perfusion SPECT

“…12 A more recent study indicated that CBF maps obtained with 3D ASL can be a marker for disease severity ranging from mild cognitive impairment to advanced AD. 13 Although many recent ASL perfusion studies were performed on 3T MR imaging, it has been shown in other studies that ASL with 1.5T MR imaging could detect regional hypoperfusion, mainly in the temporoparietal association cortex and the posterior cingulate gyrus.…”

“…Many AD studies by use of ASL have been reported, which indicates that ASL MR imaging is an indispensable technique for studying AD. [8][9][10][11][12] CBF measured with ASL MR imaging can detect regional hypoperfusion in the AD precuneus and bilateral parietal cortex and discriminate individuals with AD from normal subjects. Recent research with the use of pulsed-continuous reported that 3D ASL can evaluate the severity of cognitive impairment as measured by the correlation of CBF with cognition.…”