Rui Hu MS, Presenter: Nothing to Disclose

Yanwei Miao, Abstract Co-Author: Nothing to Disclose

Wei-Wei Wang MD, PhD, Abstract Co-Author: Nothing to Disclose

Lemei Tang MD, Abstract Co-Author: Nothing to Disclose

Minting Zheng, Abstract Co-Author: Nothing to Disclose

Qingwei Song BS, BEng, Abstract Co-Author: Nothing to Disclose

To initially exploit diffusion complexity changes of gray nucleus in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) by using diffusional kurtosis imaging (DKI).

Twenty three cases of clinically confirmed AD and Twenty four age- and sex- matched healthy volunteers underwent MR DKI scanning on a 3.0 T MR imaging scanner. The DKI parameters, including MK, Ka, Kr, MD, Da, Dr and FA, were measured on bilateral head of caudate nucleus, dentate nucleus, putamen, globus pallidus, red nucleus and substantia nigra in AD patients and controls. Two independent samples t-test was used to compare the mean values of parameters in all brain regions between the AD and healthy groups. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) test were used to assess the ability of regional diffusion measures to discriminate differences between groups. The correlations between DKI parameters and MMSE score were tested using Pearson's correlation.

Compared to the healthy group, the mean value of MK, Ka and Kr markedly increased in substantia nigra, MK value increased in head of caudate nucleus, and Ka value decreased in dentate nucleus(P＜0.05). The MD, Da and Dr value significantly increased in head of caudate nucleus and dentate nucleus; MD and Da value increased in putamen; MD value increased in red nucleus; Da and Dr value increased in globus pallidus(P＜0.05). FA value decreased in globus pallidus and substantia nigra; Whileas, FA value markedly increased in head of caudate nucleus, red nucleus and dentate nucleus(P＜0.05). The cutoff value of 0.798 was calculated for the Dr value in the globus pallidus with the best area under ROC curve (AUC) of 0.810. The Ka value showed the negative correlation with MMSE score in substantia nigra; The FA value exhibited the negative correlation with MMSE score in head of caudate nucleus; The MD value, Da value of head of caudate nucleus, putamen, dentate nucleus and Dr value of globus pallidus showed negative correlation with MMSE score; The FA value of red nucleus and substantia nigra have the positive correlation with MMSE score (all P＜0.05) .

DKI may be a new sensitive tool to quantitatively detect diffusion complexity of gray nucleus in AD patients.

DKI is useful for evaluating the structure change of gray nucleus in AD patients.

Hu, R, Miao, Y, Wang, W, Tang, L, Zheng, M, Song, Q, Diffusion Complexity of Gray Nucleus in Alzheimer’s Disease: An Initial Diffusion Kurtosis Imaging Study.  Radiological Society of North America 2014 Scientific Assembly and Annual Meeting, - ,Chicago IL. http://archive.rsna.org/2014/14045651.html