Department of Radiology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Research Center of Clinical Medical Imaging, Anhui Province Clinical Image Quality Control Center, Hefei, Anhui Province, No. 218 Jixi Road, Hefei, 230022, China.
Department of Neurology, Institute of Neurology, Anhui University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Anhui, China.
Clin Radiol. 2024 Feb;79(2):e282-e286. doi: 10.1016/j.crad.2023.11.002. Epub 2023 Nov 22.
To assess changes in the susceptibility of the caudate nucleus (CN), putamen, and globus pallidus (GP) in patients with neurological and hepatic Wilson's disease (WD) by quantitative susceptibility mapping (QSM).
The brain MRI images of 33 patients diagnosed with WD and 20 age-matched controls were analysed retrospectively. All participants underwent brain T1-weighted, T2-weighted, and QSM imaging using a 1.5 T magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machine. QSM maps were evaluated with the STISuite toolbox. The quantitative susceptibility levels of the CN, putamen, and GP were analysed using region of interest analysis on QSM maps. Differences among neurological WD patients, hepatic patients, and controls were determined.
Susceptibility levels were significantly higher for all examined structures (CN, putamen and GP) in patients with neurological WD compared with controls (all p<0.05) and hepatic WD patients (all p<0.05). No statistically significant differences were found in susceptibility levels between patients with hepatic WD and controls (all p>0.05).
The QSM technique is a valuable tool for detecting changes in brain susceptibility in WD patients, indicating abnormal metal deposition. Notably, the current findings suggest that neurological WD patients exhibit more severe susceptibility changes compared with hepatic WD patients. Therefore, QSM can be utilised as a complementary method to detect brain injury in WD patients.
通过定量磁化率映射（QSM）评估神经型和肝型威尔逊病（WD）患者尾状核（CN）、壳核和苍白球（GP）的易感性变化。
回顾性分析了 33 例 WD 患者和 20 名年龄匹配的对照组的脑 MRI 图像。所有参与者均使用 1.5T 磁共振成像（MRI）机器进行脑 T1 加权、T2 加权和 QSM 成像。使用 STISuite 工具箱评估 QSM 图谱。通过 QSM 图谱上的感兴趣区分析，对 CN、壳核和 GP 的定量磁化率水平进行分析。确定神经型 WD 患者、肝型 WD 患者和对照组之间的差异。
与对照组（均 p<0.05）和肝型 WD 患者（均 p<0.05）相比，神经型 WD 患者所有检查结构（CN、壳核和 GP）的磁化率水平均显著升高。肝型 WD 患者和对照组之间的磁化率水平无统计学差异（均 p>0.05）。
QSM 技术是一种检测 WD 患者脑磁化率变化的有价值工具，表明异常金属沉积。值得注意的是，目前的研究结果表明，神经型 WD 患者的磁化率变化比肝型 WD 患者更严重。因此，QSM 可作为一种补充方法，用于检测 WD 患者的脑损伤。
