No increased cerebrovascular involvement in adult beta-thalassemia by advanced MRI analyses

Publication date: Available online 2 May 2019Source: Blood Cells, Molecules, and DiseasesAuthor(s): Andrea Gerardo Russo, Sara Ponticorvo, Immacolata Tartaglione, Martina Caiazza, Domenico Roberti, Andrea Elefante, Maddalena Casale, Rosanna Di Concilio, Angela Ciancio, Elisa De Michele, Antonietta Canna, Mario Cirillo, Silverio Perrotta, Fabrizio Esposito, Renzo ManaraAbstractBeta-thalassemia-related anemia and chronic hypercoagulative state are supposed to cause cumulative cerebrovascular damage with consequent parenchymal/vascular changes and functional impairment. However, recent conventional MRI/MR-angiography investigations failed to show an increased cerebrovascular involvement in beta-thalassemia patients managed according to current treatment guidelines, in spite of significantly decreased full-scale IQ scores. We therefore investigated those patients and controls by means of advanced quantitative MRI analyses (based on magnetization transfer and diffusion tensor imaging) searching for signs of possible cerebrovascular injuries undetected by conventional MRI/MR-angiography. The 3 T-MRI study protocol included diffusion tensor imaging and 3D-multi-echo FLASH sequences for magnetization transfer analysis.Whole-brain voxel-based analyses showed that magnetization transfer, fractional anisotropy, and mean, radial and axial diffusivity do not differ between healthy controls and beta-thalassemia patients (considered as a whole group or as distinct transfusion dependent an...
Source: Blood Cells, Molecules, and Diseases - Category: Hematology Source Type: research