Zeineh Michael M, Holdsworth Samantha, Skare Stefan, Atlas Scott W, Bammer Roland
Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305-5105, USA.
Top Magn Reson Imaging. 2010 Dec;21(6):355-65. doi: 10.1097/RMR.0b013e31823f6413.
The human medial temporal lobe performs an essential role in memory formation and retrieval. Diseases involving the hippocampus such as Alzheimer disease present a unique opportunity for advanced imaging techniques to detect abnormalities at an early stage. In particular, it is possible that diffusion imaging will measure abnormal microarchitecture beyond the realm of macroscopic imaging. However, this task is formidable because of the detailed anatomy of the medial temporal lobe, the difficulties in obtaining high-quality diffusion images of adequate resolution, and the challenges in diffusion data processing. Moreover, it is unclear if any differences will be significant for an individual patient or simply groups of patients. Successful endeavors will need to address each of these challenges in an integrated fashion. The rewards of such analysis may be detection of microscopic disease in vivo, which could represent a landmark accomplishment for the field of neuroradiology.
人类内侧颞叶在记忆形成和提取过程中发挥着至关重要的作用。诸如阿尔茨海默病等涉及海马体的疾病为先进成像技术在早期检测异常情况提供了独特契机。特别是，扩散成像有可能检测到宏观成像范围之外的异常微观结构。然而，由于内侧颞叶解剖结构的复杂性、获取具有足够分辨率的高质量扩散图像的困难以及扩散数据处理方面的挑战，这项任务极具挑战性。此外，目前尚不清楚对于个体患者或仅仅是患者群体而言，是否会存在显著差异。成功的尝试需要以综合的方式应对上述每一项挑战。这种分析的回报可能是在活体中检测到微观疾病，这对于神经放射学领域而言可能是一项具有里程碑意义的成就。
