Bei Ding MD, Abstract Co-Author: Nothing to Disclose

Yong Zhang, Abstract Co-Author: Nothing to Disclose

Huawei Ling MD, Abstract Co-Author: Nothing to Disclose

Huan Zhang, Abstract Co-Author: Nothing to Disclose

juan huang, Presenter: Nothing to Disclose

He Wang PhD, Abstract Co-Author: Nothing to Disclose

A 3D psudo-continuous arterial spin labeling (ASL) technique was used to investigate cerebral blood flow (CBF) changes in patients with Alzheimer disease (AD)and mild cognitive impairment (MCI) as compared with age- and gender-matched healthy controls.

This study was performed with a novel 3D pseudo-continuous ASL to provide the full brain coverage and maximize the labeling efficiency at the same time. Three groups were recruited for comparison, 24 AD patients, 17 MCI patients and 21 age- and gender-matched control subjects. Three-two axial slices were acquired with a 3.0 T MR scanner with an 8-channel phase array head coil (TR/TE 1350/5ms, flip angle 155°, matrix 128 × 128, FOV 24 cm, thickness 4mm). Spatial processing was done with SPM8. The perfusion difference maps between tag and control pairs were averaged for each subject to form an individual whole-brain CBF map. Each map was then normalized to the MNI standard space, resampled to 2-mm isotropic voxels. A second-level one-way ANOVA analysis was performed on the preprocessed ASL data. The average whole-brain CBF for each subject was also included as group-level covariates for perfusion data to control the individual CBF variation.

Significant decreases CBF was observed in bilateral temporo-parieto-occipital cortex in AD patients relative to the control group. Interestingly, elevated perfusion was seen in the bilateral talamus, superior vermis as well as the white matter of temporal lobe on the right side. MCI subjects showed decreased blood flow in the right posterior cingulate, bilateral inferior temporal cortex, right middle temporal cortex, right superior parietal lobe and increased blood flow in the bilateral frontal cortex and subcortex regions and the white matter of left temporal lobe. When compared MCI with AD group, the key findings were reduced blood flow in left side of parietal cortex, the right side of temporo-occipital lobe and in the bilateral frontal lobes, in particular the left side of anterior cingulate gyrus.

Our results indicated that the novel 3D ASL provided the useful perfusion changes in MCI and AD patients. Given its ease of acquisition and noninvasiveness, the 3D ASL may be an appealing complement for AD studies.

Providing the useful perfusion information in MCI and AD patients, the novel 3D ASL  is recommended as part of a MR study in AD study.

Ding, B, Zhang, Y, Ling, H, Zhang, H, huang, j, Wang, H, Voxel-based Analysis of Cerebral Perfusion Changes in Alzheimer Disease and Mild Cognitive Impairment Using a Novel 3D Arterial Spin-labeling Technique.  Radiological Society of North America 2012 Scientific Assembly and Annual Meeting, November 25 - November 30, 2012 ,Chicago IL. http://archive.rsna.org/2012/12025984.html