Department of Radiology, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands.
Department of Human Genetics, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands.
J Alzheimers Dis. 2018;65(4):1125-1137. doi: 10.3233/JAD-180317.
The value of iron-based MRI changes for the diagnosis and staging of Alzheimer's disease (AD) depends on an association between cortical iron accumulation and AD pathology. Therefore, this study determined the cortical distribution pattern of MRI contrast changes in cortical regions selected based on the known distribution pattern of tau pathology and investigated whether MRI contrast changes reflect the underlying AD pathology in the different lobes. T2*-weighted MRI was performed on postmortem cortical tissue of controls, late-onset AD (LOAD), and early-onset AD (EOAD) followed by histology and correlation analyses. Combining ex vivo high-resolution MRI and histopathology revealed that: 1) LOAD and EOAD have a different distribution pattern of AD pathological hallmarks and MRI contrast changes over the cortex, with EOAD showing more severe MRI changes; 2) per lobe, severity of AD pathological hallmarks correlates with iron accumulation, and hence with MRI. Therefore, iron-sensitive MRI sequences allow detection of the cortical distribution pattern of AD pathology ex vivo.
铁磁共振成像（MRI）变化对阿尔茨海默病（AD）的诊断和分期的价值取决于皮质铁积累与 AD 病理学之间的关联。因此，本研究确定了基于已知 tau 病理学分布模式选择的皮质区域的 MRI 对比变化的皮质分布模式，并研究了 MRI 对比变化是否反映了不同脑叶中潜在的 AD 病理学。对对照组、迟发性 AD（LOAD）和早发性 AD（EOAD）的死后皮质组织进行 T2*-加权 MRI 检查，然后进行组织学和相关性分析。结合离体高分辨率 MRI 和组织病理学揭示：1）LOAD 和 EOAD 在皮质上具有不同的 AD 病理标志物和 MRI 对比变化分布模式，EOAD 显示出更严重的 MRI 变化；2）按脑叶划分，AD 病理标志物的严重程度与铁积累相关，进而与 MRI 相关。因此，铁敏感 MRI 序列可以在体外检测 AD 病理学的皮质分布模式。
