R2* and quantitative susceptibility mapping in deep gray matter of 498 healthy controls from 5 to 90 years

Abstract

Putative MRI markers of iron in deep gray matter have demonstrated age related changes during discrete periods of healthy childhood or adulthood, but few studies have included subjects across the lifespan. This study reports both transverse relaxation rate (R2*) and quantitative susceptibility mapping (QSM) of four primary deep gray matter regions (thalamus, putamen, caudate, and globus pallidus) in 498 healthy individuals aged 5–90 years. In the caudate, putamen, and globus pallidus, increases of QSM and R2* were steepest during childhood continuing gradually throughout adulthood, except caudate susceptibility which reached a plateau in the late 30s. The thalamus had a unique profile with steeper changes of R2* (reflecting additive effects of myelin and iron) than QSM during childhood, both reaching a plateau in the mid‐30s to early 40s and decreasing thereafter. There were no hemispheric or sex differences for any region. Notably, both R2* and QSM values showed more inter‐subject variability with increasing age from 5 to 90 years, potentially reflecting a common starting point in iron/myelination during childhood that diverges as a result of lifestyle and genetic factors that accumulate with age.

Revisiting brain iron deficiency in restless legs syndrome using magnetic resonance imaging

“…Beyond these considerations, additional factors such as disease heterogeneity, disease stages, or even age-related effects could further contribute the differences observed across studies. In this context, it is not surprising to see that the significant differences observed between RLS patients and healthy controls for R 2 * (caudate) and QSM (putamen and red nucleus) do not align and may reflect secondary factors unrelated to iron such as a differential involvement of aging-related process, e.g., changes in myelin content ( Möller et al, 2019 , Hametner et al, 2018 , Treit et al, 2021 ). This hypothesis is in line with recent evidence of morphological alterations and atrophy within regions of the basal ganglia and the limbic system in RLS ( Mogavero et al, 2021 ), supporting the concept of RLS as a complex network disorder, with the thalamus representing a crucial node within different networks, including the sensorimotor and limbic pathways.…”

Iron Deposition in Brain: Does Aging Matter?

“…Both of these MRI techniques enable in vivo studies and offer the opportunity to correlate regional iron concentrations in brain tissue to clinical phenotypes [ 14 ]. Moreover, R2* and QSM presumably provide complementary information, given that both increase along with iron, while myelin elevates R2* but decreases QSM [ 26 ].…”

“…In the cortex, the accumulation of iron increases with age mainly in the areas related to motor, cognitive, and visual functions. Four primary deep grey matter regions (thalamus, putamen, caudate, and globus pallidus) in 498 healthy individuals aged 5–90 years were studied [ 26 ], showing that in the caudate, putamen, and globus pallidus, the increases in iron-related MRI parameters were steepest during childhood and continued gradually throughout adulthood, except for caudate susceptibility, which reached a plateau in the late 30s, and in the thalamus, which reached a plateau in the mid-30s to early 40s and decreased thereafter.…”

“…In particular, the studies of Treit et al [ 26 ] and Acosta-Cabronero et al [ 23 ] report the equations for the curves of iron estimation using QSM, while for post-mortem analysis the interpolation is available from Ramos et al [ 16 ]. Due to our interest in the aging process, we considered only the age range of 60–80 years, based on which we calculated the correlation coefficient (Pearson coefficient).…”

Simultaneous Quantitative Susceptibility Mapping of Articular Cartilage and Cortical Bone of Human Knee Joint Using Ultrashort Echo Time Sequences

“…Quantitative susceptibility mapping (QSM) is a postprocessing MRI technique that quantitatively estimates the underlying magnetic susceptibilities of tissues, typically using gradient recalled echo (GRE) sequences (10,11). Since magnetic susceptibility is an intrinsic physical property of tissue, this unique contrast mechanism has made QSM a promising tool for tissue quantification and disease detection, such as for early brain development (12), brain aging (13,14) and diseased brain (15,16). Recently, researchers have applied QSM in the musculoskeletal system (17)(18)(19)(20).…”