Department of Neurology, Medical University of Graz, Graz, Austria.
J Magn Reson Imaging. 2011 Jul;34(1):13-21. doi: 10.1002/jmri.22590.
Iron deposition in the human brain tissue occurs in the process of normal aging and in many neurodegenerative diseases. Elevated iron levels in certain brain regions are also an increasingly recognized finding in multiple sclerosis (MS). The exact mechanism(s) for this phenomenon and its implication in terms of pathophysiology and clinical significance are still largely unknown and debated. Reliable methods to exactly quantify brain iron are a first step to clarify these issues. Therefore, the aim of this review is to present currently available magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) techniques for the assessment of brain iron. These include relaxation time mapping, phase imaging, susceptibility-weighted imaging, susceptibility mapping, magnetic field correlation imaging, and direct saturation imaging. After discussing their advantages and disadvantages, existing MRI clinical correlations with brain iron concentration in MS are summarized and future research directions are shown.
铁在人体脑组织中的沉积发生在正常衰老过程中和许多神经退行性疾病中。在多发性硬化症 (MS) 中，某些大脑区域的铁水平升高也是一个越来越被认可的发现。这种现象的确切机制及其在病理生理学和临床意义方面的影响在很大程度上仍然未知且存在争议。可靠的方法来准确量化大脑中的铁是阐明这些问题的第一步。因此，本综述的目的是介绍目前用于评估大脑铁的磁共振成像 (MRI) 技术。这些技术包括弛豫时间图、相位成像、磁化率加权成像、磁化率图、磁场相关成像和直接饱和成像。在讨论了它们的优缺点之后，总结了现有 MRI 与 MS 中脑铁浓度的临床相关性，并展示了未来的研究方向。
