Quantification of white matter cellularity and damage in preclinical and early symptomatic Alzheimer's disease

Publication date: Available online 13 March 2019Source: NeuroImage: ClinicalAuthor(s): Qing Wang, Yong Wang, Jingxia Liu, Courtney L. Sutphen, Carlos Cruchaga, Tyler Blazey, Brian A. Gordon, Yi Su, Charlie Chen, Joshua S. Shimony, Beau M. Ances, Nigel J. Cairns, Anne M. Fagan, John C. Morris, Tammie L.S. BenzingerAbstractInterest in understanding the roles of white matter (WM) inflammation and damage in the pathophysiology of Alzheimer's disease (AD) has been growing significantly in recent years. However, in vivo magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) techniques for imaging inflammation are still lacking. An advanced diffusion based MRI method, neuro-inflammation imaging (NII), has been developed to clinically image and quantify WM inflammation and damage in AD. Here, we employed NII measures in conjunction with cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) biomarker classification (for β-amyloid and neurodegeneration) to evaluate 200 participants in an ongoing study of memory and aging. Elevated NII-derived cellular diffusivity was observed in both preclinical and early symptomatic phases of AD, while disruption of WM integrity, as detected by decreased fractional anisotropy (FA) and increased radial diffusivity (RD), was only observed in the symptomatic phase of AD. This may suggest that WM inflammation occurs earlier than WM damage following abnormal amyloid accumulation in AD. The negative correlation between NII-derived cellular diffusivity and CSF Aβ42 level (a marker of amyloidosis) may indi...
Source: NeuroImage: Clinical - Category: Radiology Source Type: research