Jeong-Won Jeong^1,2, Joseph Shin², Vijay N Tiwari², Harry T Chugani^1,2, and Diane C Chugani^1,2
1Pediatrics and Neurology, Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan, United States, ²PET center, Children's Hospital of Michigan, Detroit, Michigan, United States

Postmortem neuropathology reports reduced number and size of Purkinje cells (PC) in a majority of cerebellum specimens from persons with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). We investigated whether structural changes related to decreased PC could be detected in vivo by measuring diffusion weighted imaging streamlines connecting the cerebellar cortex to the dentate nucleus. It was found that 73.3% of children with ASD showed reduced fractional anisotrpy in streamlines connecting cerebellar cortex to right dentate nucleus. This study detected white matter pathology in a similar portion of cases as in postmortem pathology showing decreased PC in lateral posterio-lateral cerebellar cortex.

Ruth L O'Gorman¹, Petra S Huppi², Hans Ulrich Bucher³, Brigitte M Koller³, and Cornelia F Hagmann^3
1University Children's Hospital, Zurich, Switzerland, ²Division of Child Growth & Development, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland, ³Department of Neonatology, University Hospital of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland

Erythropoietin (Epo) is a haematopoetic cytokine which has been shown to have neuroprotective and neuroregenerative effects on the brain. This study investigates the effects on Epo on the development of white matter in preterm infants. Tract based spatial statistics (tbss) analysis of diffusion tensor imaging data from 58 preterm infants revealed increased FA in Epo-treated infants in the corpus callosum, internal and external capsule, corona radiata, centrum semiovale, and the corticospinal tract. Neurodevelopmental follow-up data should help to clarify the developmental significance of these findings, but early Epo administration appears to improve white matter development in preterm infants.

Devasuda Anblagan^1,2, Kaiming Yin¹, Rebecca M Reynolds³, Fiona Denison², Mark E Bastin⁴, Colin Studholme⁵, James P Boardman², Scott I Semple^1,3, Neil Roberts¹, and Jane E Norman^2
1Clinical Research Imaging Centre, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom, ²MRC Centre for Reproductive Health, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom, ³Centre for Cardiovascular Sciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom, ⁴Centre for Clinical Brain Sciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom, ⁵Department of Pediatrics, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, United States

Retrospective motion correction is now possible for fetal brain MRI at 2nd and 3rd trimester, making it possible to quantify brain development in utero. The Isotropic Cavalieri method has been applied to analyse 3D reconstructed fetal brain images from 36–38 weeks to measure brain growth in fetuses exposed to maternal substance abuse compared with non-exposed fetuses. Fetal intracranial and cerebral volumes were reduced by maternal substance abuse, and cerebellum volume and pial surface area in female exposed fetuses are significantly smaller compared with male exposed fetuses. Analyses will be extended to include fetal brain measurement at 24–27 weeks.

Xiawei Ou¹, Raghu Ramakrishnaiah¹, Charles Glasier¹, Sarah Mulkey¹, Zhaohua Ding², and Jeffrey Kaiser^3
1Unversity of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Little Rock, AR, United States, ²Vanderbilt University, TN, United States, ³Baylor College of Medicine, TX, United States

The purpose of this study is to evaluate white matter in extremely low birth weight (ELBW) infants with or without previous hemorrhage in the brain. We enrolled ELBW infants for MRI examination at term-equivalent age and reviewed their medical records of IVH diagnosis by routine ultrasound, divided them to different groups according to the extent of hemorrhage, and compared their white matter respectively to healthy newborn term infants by conventional MRI and DTI. Our results suggested that previous hemorrhage in the brain has significant effects on white matter development in ELBW infants at term-equivalent age, and that ELBW infants with no brain hemorrhage are more likely to have normal white matter development.

Lili He¹ and Nehal A Parikh^1,2
1Center for Perinatal Research, The Research Institute at Nationwide Children's Hospital, Columbus, OH, United States, ²The Ohio State University College of Medicine, Columbus, OH, United States

The developmental significance of the frequently encountered diffuse white matter signal abnormality (WMSA) findings on term MRI in very preterm infants remains in question. Guided with our very preterm infant brain atlas, we objectively quantified WMSA on conventional T2-weighted MRI at around term-equivalent age. We demonstrated automatically detected WMSA volume to be a significant predictor of cognitive and language development at 2 years of age. Our findings support the use of objective automated techniques to accurately quantify the lesion burden in perinatal-neonatal brain injury. Our work will facilitate population-based studies to more accurately characterize WMSA’s long-term sequelae.

Zoe A Englander^1,2, Wei Li², Anastasiya Batrachenko², Jessica Sun^3,4, Mohamad Mikati^3,4, Joanne Kurtzberg^3,4, Chunlei Liu^2,5, and Allen W Song^2,5
1Biomedical Engineering, Duke University, Durham, NC, United States, ²Brain Imaging and Analysis Center, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, United States, ³Pediatrics, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, United States, ⁴The Robertson Cell and Translational Therapy Center, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, United States, ⁵Radiology, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, United States

We investigate the use of quantitative susceptibility mapping (QSM) to detect myelin specific white matter (WM) damage in Cerebral Palsy (CP). The theoretical dependence of magnetic susceptibility on white matter fiber angle due to the presence of myelin is well characterized. QSM anisotropy was compared between healthy and damaged white matter in CP. By localizing voxels with aberrant anisotropy characteristics, specific regions of WM damage were identified.

Paola Scifo¹, Elisa Marchetta^2,3, Silvia Pontesilli², Elisa Scola², Antonella Poloniato⁴, Graziano Barbera⁴, Antonella Iadanza², Andrea Falini^2,5, and Cristina Baldoli^2
1Nuclear Medicine, Ospedale San Raffaele, Milan, -, Italy, ²Neuroradiology, Ospedale San Raffaele, Milan, -, Italy, ³Univeristà degli Studi di Milano Bicocca, Milano, -, Italy, ⁴Pediatric Department, Ospedale San Raffaele, Milan, -, Italy, ⁵Università Vita-Salute San Raffaele, Milan, -, Italy

Brain maturation in the early ages of life is characterized by crucial microstructural changes. This work aims to study the different development of White Matter in pre-term newborns with respect to those born at term, by using TBSS for the statistical comparison of DTI FA and MD maps acquired on a 3T scanner. The results show an advanced brain maturation in term vs preterm infants at 40 weeks PMA and a progressive maturation of preterm brains in the three ages of acquisition, demonstrating the feasibility of TBSS analysis on DTI data for the evaluation of myelination process.

Maria A. Rocca^1,2, Paola Valsasina¹, Sara Sala¹, Vittorio Martinelli³, Angelo Ghezzi⁴, Pierangelo Veggiotti⁵, Andrea Falini⁶, Giancarlo Comi³, and Massimo Filippi^1,3
1Neuroimaging Research Unit, Institute of Experimental Neurology, San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, Milan, MI, Italy,²Department of Neurology, San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, Milan, Mi, Italy, ³Department of Neurology, San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, Milan, MI, Italy, ⁴UO Neurologia 2 - Centro Studi Sclerosi Multipla, Ospedale di Gallarate, Gallarate, VA, Italy, ⁵Child Neuropsychiatry Unit, National Neurologic Institute "C. Mondino", Pavia, PV, Italy, ⁶Department of Neuroradiology, San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, Milan, MI, Italy

Resting state functional MRI (RS fMRI) and graph theory were applied to investigate the functional organization of large-scale brain networks (connectome) in 52 pediatric patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) and 16 healthy controls (HC). Pediatric MS patients compared with HC showed a relatively preserved global topology of functional network organization. The local reorganization of functional network in pediatric MS patients involved only a few infratentorial and supratentorial brain regions including the cerebellum, basal ganglia and paritetal/occipital areas. The limited reorganization of brain topology found in pediatric MS patients might contribute to explain their better clinical outcome.

Elda Fischi-Gomez^1,2, Emma Muñoz-Moreno³, Lana Vasung², Djalel Eddine Meskaldji^4,5, Sebastien Urben⁶, Maryline Monnier⁷, Koviljka Barishnikov⁶, Cristina Borradori-Tolsa², François Lazeyras⁵, Jean-Philippe Thiran^1,8, and Petra Susan Hüppi^2
1Signal Processing Laboratory LTS5, Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland, ²Division of Child Development and Growth. Department of Pediatrics, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland, ³Fetal and Perinatal Medicine Research Group, Institut d'Investigacions Biomediques August Pi i Sunyer, Barcelona, Spain, ⁴MIPLab, Institute of Bioengeneering, Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland, ⁵Department of Radiology and Medical Informatics, Faculty of Medicine, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland, ⁶Child Clinical Neuropsychology Unit, Department of Psychology, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland, ⁷Developmental Unit. Division of Neonatology (DMCP), University Hospital Center (CHUV), Lausanne, Switzerland, ⁸Department of Radiology, University Hospital Center (CHUV) and University of Lausanne (UNIL), Lausanne, Switzerland

We have applied connectome analysis techniques and graph model-based brain network measures in a group of prematurely born children, known to be a population at high risk for structural and functional brain abnormalities, in order to assess the influence of brain connectivity on their cognitive capacities and behavior.

Claudia Hagelstein¹, Frank G. Zoellner², Meike Weidner¹, Thomas Schaible³, Fabian Zimmer², Lothar R. Schad², Stefan O. Schoenberg¹, Katrin Zahn⁴, and K. Wolfgang Neff^1
1Institute of Clinical Radiology and Nuclear Medicine, University Medical Center Mannheim, Heidelberg University, Mannheim, Baden-Württemberg, Germany, ²Computer Assisted Clinical Medicine, Heidelberg University, Mannheim, Baden-Württemberg, Germany, ³Dept. of Pediatrics, University Medical Center Mannheim, Heidelberg University, Mannheim, Baden-Württemberg, Germany, ⁴Dept. of Pediatric Surgery, University Medical Center Mannheim, Heidelberg University, Mannheim, Baden-Württemberg, Germany

Purpose: To quantify cerebral perfusion in children after congenital diaphragmatic hernia repair with right common carotid artery (rCCA) occlusion after ECMO therapy using pASL. Materials and Methods: In 14 patients the rCCA was occluded after ECMO therapy (primary ligation or secondary occlusion after reconstruction). 15 patients without ECMO served as controls. Results: In patients with rCCA occlusion subcortical perfusion of the right hemisphere was significantly lower compared to the left hemisphere (p=0.011). In one third of the patients with rCCA occlusion, relCBF of the right hemisphere was reduced of more than 20%. Conclusion: Based on the possible hypoperfusion of the right hemisphere after rCCA occlusion, reconstruction of the rCCA should be preferred after ECMO therapy.

Malek Makki¹, Jitka Majerova², Walter Knirsch³, Beatrice Latal⁴, and Cornelia Hagmann^2
1MRI Research, Univesity Children Hospital of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland, ²Neonatalogy, University Hospital of Zurich, Switzerland, ³Cardiology, University Children Hospital of Zurich, Switzerland, ⁴Child Development Center, University Children Hospital of Zurich, Switzerland

DTI and 3D volumetric acquisitions were preformed on 15 neonates with transposition of the great artery before and after surgery and compared to 20 age matched healthy controls. We subdivided the corpus callosum into 5 parts: genu, rostrum, body, isthmus, and splenium and compared their volume and their DTI indices. Pre and post surgical patients had significantly lower sub-structural volumes compare to healthy controls but no correlation with DTI indices. Altered DTI indices were observed in all sub-structures in the post surgical group while pre-surgical patients showed altered DTI indices in the splenium and rostrum.

Shanshan Wang¹, Guoguang Fan¹, Ke Xu¹, and Ci Wang^1
1The First Hospital of China Medical University, Shenyang, Liaoning, China

We used the tractography approach of DTI to detect differences in fractional anisotropy in major cerebellar white matters in children with diffuse PVL. The present study provides more information for understanding the pathophysiology of motor impairments by showing the correlations between the SCP and MCP microstructure injury and GMFCS levels in children with diffuse PVL.

Jeong-Won Jeong¹, Joseph Shin², Vijay N Tiwari², Harry T Chugani¹, and Csaba Juhasz^1,2
1Pediatrics and Neurology, Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan, United States, ²PET center, Children's Hospital of Michigan, Detroit, Michigan, United States

The present study combined DWI streamline tractography with FDG-PET to determine the relation between occipital cortical metabolic changes and abnormalities of the corresponding visual tracts in children with unilateral Sturge-Weber syndrom (SWS). We found that decreased occipital glucose metabolism is associated with decreased visual streamline volume on the affected hemisphere. We also found that high glucose metabolism in the contralateral occipital (visual) cortex is associated with high DWI streamline volume of the corresponding visual pathway. This study demonstrates that FDG-PET combined with DWI tractography can be utilized to investigate both brain damage and plasticity in children with early occipital lesion.

hong zhang^1,2, Xuna Zhao³, Jinyuan Zhou², and Yun Peng^4
1Imaging Center,Beijing Children’s Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, Beijing, China, ²Neurosection, Division of MR Research, Department of Radiology, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, United States, ³Peking University, Beijing, China, ⁴Beijing Children’s Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, Beijing, China

APT-MRI is a chemical exchange saturation transfer (CEST) based approach in which the amide protons of endogenous proteins and peptides are irradiated to accomplish detection using the water signal. In this study, the APT approach was incorporated with standard brain MRI sequences and applied to children with brain infection at 3T. The initial results show that APT imaging can enhance the noninvasive identification of tissue heterogeneity in brain infection.

Maud CAGNEAUX^1,2, Meritxell BACH CUADRA^3,4, Sébastien TOURBIER^3,4, Marie SCHAER⁵, Salem HANNOUN², Laurent GUIBAUD¹, and Dominique SAPPEY-MARINIER^2
1Radiology, Hôpital Femme Mère Enfant, Lyon, France, ²CREATIS (UMR 5220 CNRS & U1044 INSERM), University of Lyon and CERMEP-Imagerie du Vivant, Lyon, France, ³University Hospital Center (CHUV) and University of Lausanne (UNIL), Lausanne, Switzerland, ⁴Center for Biomedical Imaging (CIBM), Lausanne, Switzerland, ⁵University of Geneva, Switzerland

The aim of our study is to determine the feasibility of the fetal brain segmentation applied to pericerebral spaces (PCS), which relies only on subjective pattern recognition expertise. 10 patients who underwent a fetal MRI were included. High-resolution reconstruction using motion compensation BTK was applied to obtain volumetric images of the fetal brain from 2D MR stacks. PCS were extracted using semi-automatic segmentation, requiring manual expert slice to slice corrections. Our study demonstrates the feasibility of PCS segmentation, albeit time consuming and expert-dependent. It could help diagnosing fetal cerebral pathologies and become a daily tool in the fetal brain exploration.

Sara Cirillo¹, Maria A. Rocca¹, Paola Valsasina¹, Pierangelo Veggiotti², Lucia Moiola³, Angelo Ghezzi⁴, Giancarlo Comi³, Andrea Falini⁵, and Massimo Filippi^1
1Neuroimaging Research Unit, Institute of Experimental Neurology, San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, Milan, MI, Italy,²Child Neuropsychiatry Unit, National Neurologic Institute "C. Mondino", Pavia, PV, Italy, ³Department of Neurology, San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, Milan, MI, Italy, ⁴UO Neurologia 2 - Centro Studi Sclerosi Multipla, Ospedale di Gallarate, Gallarate, VA, Italy,⁵Department of Neuroradiology, San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, Milan, MI, Italy

We explored abnormalities of resting state (RS) functional connectivity (FC) of the dentate nuclei (DN) of the cerebellum in relapsing-remitting pediatric multiple sclerosis (MS) patients and healthy controls and whether these alterations correlate with clinical and MRI measures of disease severity. In both groups, RS FC of the R DN was significantly correlated with the FC in other portions of the cerebellum, basal ganglia, several regions in the prefrontal cortices and parietal lobes. Compared to HC, patients experienced a distributed pattern of reduced RS FC in multiple regions, which was influenced by disease duration and accumulation of white matter lesions.

Niels Bergsland^1,2, Francesca Baglio¹, Gisella Baglio¹, Raffaello Nemni^1,3, Mario Clerici^1,3, Michela Zanette¹, and Valeria Blasi^1
1Istituto IRCCS Santa Maria Nascente, Fondazione Don Gnocchi, Milan, Italy, ²Dipartimento di Elettronica, Informatica e Bioingegneria, Politecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy, ³Università degli Studi di Milano, Milan, Italy

Borderline Intellectual Functioning (BIF) children present with cognitive, motor, social and adaptive limitations that result in learning disabilities and are more likely to develop psychiatric disorders later in life. It has become increasingly recognized that gray matter plays a significant role in this condition. The current study compared BIF and typically developing groups of children in measures of cortical thickness/area as well as subcortical structural volumes in BIF. It was shown that BIF children present with brain development delay in cortical areas and that thalamus which are associated with motor and cognitive abilities crucial for intellectual functioning.

Maria Elisa Morelli¹, Maria A. Rocca¹, Elisabetta Pagani¹, Lucia Moiola², Angelo Ghezzi³, Andrea Falini⁴, Giancarlo Comi², and Massimo Filippi^1
1Neuroimaging Research Unit, Institute of Experimental Neurology, San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, Milan, MI, Italy,²Department of Neurology, San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, Milan, MI, Italy, ³UO Neurologia 2 - Centro Studi Sclerosi Multipla, Ospedale di Gallarate, Gallarate, VA, Italy, ⁴Department of Neuroradiology, San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, Milan, MI, Italy

Manual hippocampal tracing of 3DT1-weighted contiguous coronal slices and radial mapping analysis were applied to assess the patterns of global and regional hippocampal volume changes in paediatric multiple sclerosis (MS) patients. Global hippocampal volume was reduced, bilaterally, in patients versus HC. In patients, radial atrophy affected the cornu Ammonis, subiculum and dentate gyrus (DG) of both hippocampi, mostly on the right side. Compared to cognitively preserved patients, those with cognitive impairment had radial atrophy of the subiculum and DG of the right hippocampus. MR-based radial mapping analysis is feasible for developing reliable markers of disease progression in MS.

Hua-Shan Liu¹, Abbas F. Jawad², Nina Laney², Stephen Hooper³, Jerilynn Radcliffe², Divya Moodalbail², Christos Davatzikos¹, Robert Schultz², Susan Furth², and John Detre^1
1University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, United States, ²The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, United States, ³University of North Carolina School of Medicine, Chapel Hill, NC, United States

We investigated the group difference of the cardiovascular fluctuation-induced modulation in BOLD fMRI signal between patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) and control subjects. We found that CKD patients showed a significantly increased cardiac modulation in BOLD fMRI in the anterior cingulated cortex as compared with control subjects.

Toshiaki Taoka¹, Toshiaki Akashi¹, Masahiko Sakamoto¹, Toshiteru Miyasaka¹, Tomoko Ochi¹, Saeka Hori¹, Takeshi Wada¹, and Kimihiko Kichikawa^1
1Radiology, Nara Medical University, Kashihara, Nara, Japan

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the relationship between pituitary stalk compression by dorsum sellae and clinical findings in short stature children. We evaluated degree of compression findings of pituitary stalk by dorsum sellae. The pituitary stalk compression with stalk deformity by dorsum sellae has significant correlation with late childhood onset short stature. This finding suggests that compression of pituitary portal system by dorsum sellae could be a possible cause for late childhood onset short stature with growth hormone deficiency.

Tine Verreet^1,2, JanakiRaman Rangarajan^3,4, Tom Dresselaers⁵, Frederik Maes³, Sarah Baatout¹, Lieve Moons², Mohammed Abderrafi Benotmane¹, and Uwe Himmelreich^5
1Radiobiology Unit, Molecular and Cellular Biology, Belgian Nuclear Research Centre, SCK CEN, Mol, Belgium, ²Laboratory of Neural Circuit Development and Regeneration, KU Leuven, Belgium, ³ESAT/PSI - Medical Image Computing, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium, ⁴iMinds-KU Leuven Future Health Department, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium, ⁵Biomedical MRI unit, Department of Imaging and Pathology, KU Leuven, Belgium

Epidemiological studies have shown that in utero irradiation exposure causes a higher incidence of neurological disorders and cognitive defects like seizures and mental retardation (for e.g. survivors of the atomic bombings). There is renewed interests to investigate whether even low doses of radiation can cause long-term neurological defects. However, animal studies in this field are scarce and underpinning causes remain unclear. The main objective of this study is to characterize the morphological effects of in utero exposure to low and moderate doses of ionizing radiation on the mouse brain using in vivo MRI. Prenatally irradiated mice show reduction in brain volume at higher dose (0.66 Gy, 1 Gy), which is comparable to results from human studies. Morphological changes are in line with the cognitive function assessed by behavioral experiments.

Devasuda Anblagan^1,2, Mark E Bastin³, Sarah Sparrow², Chinthika Piyasena⁴, Rozi Pataky⁵, Emma Moore², Graham Wilkinson⁵, Neil Roberts¹, Scott I Semple^1,4, and James P Boardman^2
1Clinical Research Imaging Centre, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom, ²MRC Centre for Reproductive Health, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom, ³Centre for Clinical Brain Sciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom, ⁴Centre for Cardiovascular Sciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom, ⁵NHS Lothian, Edinburgh, United Kingdom

Preterm delivery affects 11% of all live births and is a leading cause of neurodevelopmental impairment and suboptimal educational achievement in childhood. Some of the adverse neurodevelopmental sequelae of preterm birth are gender-specific and may be neuroprotective strategies: preterm males have a worse neurodevelopmental outcome than females. We present the first application of an automatic single seed point tractography-based segmentation method, probabilistic neighborhood tractography, to study the gender specific effect on developing white matter tracts in preterm infants. Our work demonstrates increased diffusivities and reduced fractional anistropy in the cingulum cingulate gyri of female preterm infants compared with male equivalents.

Arzu Kovanlikaya¹, Linda Heier¹, Jonathan P Dyke², Jeffrey M Perlman³, and Allison Dunning^4
1Radiology, Weill Cornell Medical College, New York, NY, United States, ²Citigroup Biomedical Imaging Center, Weill Cornell Medical College, New York, NY, United States, ³Pediatrics, Weill Cornell Medical College, New York, NY, United States, ⁴Public Health/Biostatistics, Weill Cornell Medical College, New York, NY, United States

Cerebral perfusion in subjects with HIE after hypothermia have not been well described. The purpose of this study was to assess perfusion on ASL and compare to conventional MRI in the second week of life. CBF values were compared to normals reported in the literature. Subjects with qualitative basal ganglia injury on conventional MR had lower CBF. Relative hyperemia in deep gray matter with no corresponding qualitative abnormality may be related to timing of injury evolution. CBF can quantified by ASL in hypothermia treated infants in the second week of life. Longitudinal studies are needed to evaluate the progression of hyperperfusion.

Dustin K Ragan¹, Gary Skolnick², Jose A Pineda¹, Matthew D Smyth³, and Kamlesh Babulal Patel^2
1Department of Pediatrics, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO, United States, ²Department of Surgery, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO, United States, ³Department of Neurosurgery, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO, United States

Craniosynostosis is associated with elevated ICP, however its physiological effects are largely unknown. We studied the effects of craniosynostosis on cerebral perfusion using pseudocontinuous ASL. Focal regions of apparent hyperemia were detected, suggesting either metabolic abnormalities or a decrease in CSF space.

Qing Ji¹, John O. Glass¹, Michelle N. Edelmann², Kevin R. Krull², Robert J. Ogg¹, and Wilburn E. Reddick^1
1Radiological Science, St.Jude Children's Research Hospital, Memphis, TN, United States, ²Epidemiology & Cancer Control, St.Jude Children's Research Hospital, Memphis, TN, United States

Hippocampal volume and shape were examined in two groups of adult survivors of childhood ALL and compared to healthy controls using the SPHARM statistical shape model. Survivors were treated with either only chemotherapy or cranial radiotherapy (CRT) and chemotherapy. The mean hippocampal volumes of both survivor groups were lower than that of healthy controls, but did not reach statistical significance. Abnormal shape deformations were found primarily in the right hippocampus of survivors treated with CRT. Since the shape abnormality may correlate with hippocampal damage, the results of this study suggest that radiation may cause more damage to the hippocampi than chemotherapy alone in adult survivors of childhood ALL.

Thomas Tourdias^1,2, Manojkumar Saranathan², Ives R Levesque², Jason Su², and Brian K Rutt^2
1Service de NeuroImagerie Diagnostique et Thérapeutique, CHU Pellegrin - Université de Bordeaux, Bordeaux, France, ²Department of Radiology, Stanford University, Stanford, California, United States

We present a 3D-MPRAGE pulse sequence at 7T specifically optimized to visualize the thalamic anatomy. Simulations of the MPRAGE signal behavior using our intra-thalamic T1 measurements and empirical optimization in volunteers showed that (i) nulling the signal of the white matter (WM), (ii) increasing the time between two inversion pulses, (iii) increasing the length of the readout, and (iv) using a low flip angle provided the best tradeoff between thalamic signal, intra-thalamic contrast while limiting the blur. This method allowed to accurately and reproducibly delineate 15 thalamic nuclei in healthy controls.

Keita Watanabe¹, Shingo Kakeda¹, Reiji Yoshimura², Abe Osamu³, Ide Satoru¹, Rieko Watanabe¹, Asuka Katsuki², Wakako Umene-Nakano², Jun Nakamura², and Yukunori Korogi^1
1Radiology, University of Occupational and Environmental Health, Fukuoka, Japan, Kitakyushu, Fukuoka, Japan, ²Psychiatry, University of Occupational and Environmental Health, Fukuoka, Japan, Japan, ³Nihon University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan

Catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) is a methylation enzyme engaged in the degradation of dopamine by catalyzing the transfer of a methyl group from S-adenosylmethionine. Although COMT appears to be concentrated especially in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) and medial temporal lobe, the recent studies showed that COMT impact on brain activation is not limited to the PFC and medial temporal lobe, but extending into the striatum in healthy subjects. We investigated the relationship between the Val108/158Met COMT genotype and striatum volume. We found that COMT genotype affects the caudate volume,which may relate to the differences of dopamine level in the striatum.

Zhaoying Han¹, Nils Daniel Forkert¹, Julian Maclaren¹, Nancy Fischbein¹, and Roland Bammer^1
1Department of Radiology, Stanford University, Stanford, California, United States

The automatic atlas-based brain parcellation is an important processing step for longitudinal and cross-sectional brain studies. The aim of this work is to evaluate the robustness of three non-linear registration frameworks (NiftyReg, FSL and ATNS), by applying them to 120 high-resolution T1-weighted datasets acquired multiple times from three healthy subjects. The MNI atlas was registered to each dataset and the resulting non-linear transformations were used to warp the Harvard-Oxford subcortical brain regions to each subject for regional volume determinations. All three registration methods lead to robust brain parcellation results with low standard deviations, but considerable differences between the methods.

Michael Wyss¹, Mike Bruegger^1,2, Bernd Daeubler³, Laetitia Vionnet¹, David Brunner¹, and Klaas Pruessmann^1
1Institute for Biomedical Engineering, University of Zurich and ETH, Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland, ²Center of Dental Medicine, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland, ³Department of Neuroradiology, University Hospital Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland

The human brainstem and its substructures are known to be involved in a multitude of functions. Incorporated substructures are small and extremely densely packed, resulting in low intrinsic contrast between these structures. All this facets together hamper the accurate, non-invasive visualization by in-vivo MR imaging. This work describes the application of a modified 3D-MPRAGE sequence at 7T in the human brainstem. The use of an optimized high resolution 3D-MPRAGE sequence in the gray matter nulling regime at 7Tesla provides a clearly enhanced image contrast between different substructures in the human brainstem, which are nearly invisible with normal MR imaging.

Chan Hong Moon¹, Jung-Hwan Kim², and Kyongtae Bae^2
1University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, United States, ²University of Pittsburgh, PA, United States

We tested the feasibility/limitation of in-vivo imaging of substructures in the human hippocampus at high-field 7 T by comparing the resultant image with an ex-vivo sub-millimeter high-resolution MR image of a hippocampus specimen. Subregional morphology of hippocampal formation was successfully imaged in vivo, and the layer III profile in entorhinal cortex could be visualized.

Marco Piccirelli¹, Alexander A. Tarnutzer², Werner Wichmann¹, Antonios Valavanis¹, Dominik Straumann², and Franziska C.S. Altorfer^1
1Neuroradiology, University Hospital Zurich, Zurich, ZH, Switzerland, ²Neurology, University Hospital Zurich, Zurich, ZH, Switzerland

Cerebellar volumetry correlates multiple clinical findings (ataxia, seizures, psychiatric symptoms) with localized cerebellar atrophy. Therefore, researchers quantified the volume of cerebellar parts using high-resolution 3D-T1-SPGR sequences, which has an intrinsic low CSF/GM contrast and is motion-sensitive. Nevertheless, the coarse volumetry reported in clinical studies is corrupted by the low resolution of clinical 3D-T1-SPGR. To avoid artifacts, we propose an intrinsically motion insensitive PROPELLER 2D-T2-TSE to clearly depict cerebellar borders and quantify cerebellar lobe volumes. These results set the basics for a clinically useable quantification of cerebellar atrophy and give a reference to further volumetric analysis of individual cerebellar lobes.

Mike Bruegger^1,2, Michael Wyss¹, Bernd Daeubler³, Daniel Nanz⁴, Alex Ringenbach⁵, David Brunner¹, and Klaas Pruessmann^1
1Institute for Biomedical Engineering, University of Zurich and ETH, Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland, ²Center of Dental Medicine, University of Zurich, Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland, ³Department of Neuroradiology, University Hospital Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland, ⁴Department of Radiology, University Hospital Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland, ⁵Institute for Medical and Analytical Technologies, University of Applied Sciences of Northwestern Switzerland, Muttenz, Basel, Switzerland

The deep cerebellar nuclei (dentate, fastigial, globose, emboliforme) are of significant functional importance, but difficult to investigate in detail non-invasively because of their small size and tight arrangement. This work presents a modified 3D-MPRAGE sequence with high spatial resolution (voxel size=0.275mm3) in the gray matter nulling regime at 7T. Focusing on the dentate nuclei (DN) bilaterally, we aimed to contribute to the ongoing debate linking handedness, size and hemispheric asymmetry by examining 26 healthy volunteers (13 right/left handed). We revealed a significantly smaller left DN irrespective of handedness, age and sex.

Ke Jiang¹, Yiu-cho Chung¹, Yin Wu¹, and Yanjie Zhu^1
1Paul C. Lauterbur Research Center for Biomedical Imaging, Shenzhen key laboratory for MRI, Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology, Shenzhen, Guangdong, China

We propose a fast and robust 2D T1 mapping method that uses real time imaging to sample the recovery of the slice selective inversion pulse. The technique was capable of acquiring two T1 maps in 6 seconds and full brain coverage (18 slices) in 1 min with a high spatial resolution of 1.1mm x 1.1mm x 4mm.

Simon Duchesne¹, Fernando Valdivia², Nicolas Robitaille², Abderazzak Mouiha², Abiel F. Valdivia², Martina Bocchetta³, Liana G. Apostolova⁴, Rossana Ganzola², Greg Preboske⁵, Dominik Wolf⁶, Marina Boccardi³, Clifford R. Jack Jr.⁵, and Giovanni B. Frisoni^3
1Universite Laval, Quebec, Quebec, Canada, ²Universite Laval, Quebec, Canada, ³IRCCS Fatebenefratelli, Brescia, Italy, ⁴UCLA, Los Angeles, CA, United States, ⁵Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota, United States, ⁶Johannes Gutenberg-Universität, Mainz, Germany

We present early user cases for a platform for manual segmentation of the hippocampus on magnetic resonance images, set within the context of the EADC-ADNI Harmonized Protocol project (HarP). The interactive web system allows for protocol learning, segmentation training and qualification of the ability of new tracers to segment the hippocampus according to the HarP. Our objective was to demonstrate that the training process embedded in the platform led to increased compliance with the HarP. Statistical testing of training over three phases showed a significant effect of Jaccard overlap, demonstrating that training positively increased compliance with the HarP. 

Steven Kecskemeti^1,2 and Andrew L Alexander^3,4
1Waisman Center, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, United States, ²Radiology, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, United States, ³Medical Physics, University of Wisconsin, WI, United States, ⁴Psychiatry, University of Wisconsin, Madison, United States

Intensity-based brain tissue segmentation algorithms rely on post-hoc image intensity at a single point along the relaxation recovery curve of MPRAGE exams, making them very sensitive to unexpected signal variations such as the spatial heterogeneity of radio-frequency (RF) coil sensitivities. This work develops a novel, robust and efficient method for brain tissue segmentation that relies on intrinsic properties such as T1 and is insensitive to variations in RF receiver coil bias. The method assigns the tissue class according to the sign of the real signal intensity after voxel-wise complex-multiplication of inversion recovery images with different inversion times.

Marina Boccardi¹, Martina Bocchetta¹, Felix Morency², Masami Nishikawa³, Rossana Ganzola⁴, Michel Grothe⁵, Dominik Wolf⁶, Alberto Redolfi¹, Michela Pievani¹, Andreas Fellgiebel⁶, Hiroshi Matsuda³, Stefan Teipel⁵, Simon Duchesne⁷, Clifford R. Jack Jr.⁸, Giovanni B. Frisoni¹, and Luigi Antelmi^1
1IRCCS Fatebenefratelli, Brescia, Italy, ²IMEKA, Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada, ³Kawamura Gakuen Woman's University, Abiko-City, Japan, ⁴Universite Laval, Quebec, Canada, ⁵German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases, Rostock, Germany, ⁶Johannes Gutenberg-Universität, Mainz, Germany,⁷Universite Laval, Quebec, Quebec, Canada, ⁸Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota, United States

The EADC-ADNI Harmonized Protocol (HarP) is a Delphi definition of manual hippocampal segmentation from MRI. Training manual raters, and especially automated segmentation algorithms, requires large datasets representative of wide physiological variability. This work produced a set of 270 hippocampal labels certified to comply with standard HarP segmentation allowing proper training of tracers and algorithms alike.

Kazumi Kasahara^1,2, Charles Sayo DaSalla², Manabu Honda^1,2, and Takashi Hanakawa^2,3
1Department of Functional Brain Research, National Institute of Neuroscience, National Center of Neurology and Psychiatry, Kodairashi, Tokyo, Japan,²Department of Advanced Neuroimaging, Integrative Brain Imaging Center, National Center of Neurology and Psychiatry, Kodairashi, Tokyo, Japan,³PRESTO, Japan Science and Technology Agency, Kawaguchi, Saitama, Japan

Brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) have been widely studied for their potential to replace lost functions in the form of neuroprostheses. However, BCI performance varies considerably among individuals, and the factors affecting BCI performance are poorly understood. Therefore, we investigated the relationship between performance of an electroencephalographic (EEG) mu rhythm-based BCI (EEG-BCI) and brain structure. We found correlations between EEG-BCI performance and gray matter volume of Area 5, the dorsal premotor cortex, and supplementary motor area. These findings demonstrate the need to develop BCIs better suited to individual performance variability and may also provide insight into the methods for doing so.

Stefano Tambalo¹, Alessandro Daducci², Elisa Mosconi¹, Silvia Fiorini¹, Nicolo' Sonato¹, Marta Balietti³, Patrizia Fattoretti³, Andrea Sbarbati⁴, and Pasquina Marzola^5
1Dept. of Neuological and Movement Science, Università di Verona, Verona, Verona, Italy, ²STI IEL LTS5, EPFL, Lausanne, Switzerland, ³Neurobiology of Aging Laboratory and Cellular Bioenergetics Laboratory, I.N.R.C.A. (Italian National Centres on Aging), Ancona, Italy, ⁴Dept. of Neuological and Movement Science, INSTM Firenze, Verona, Italy, ⁵Dept. of Computer Science, University of Verona, Verona, Italy

In the last decade many studies of human brain aging based on MRI advanced techniques have been published. Clinical studies are potentially affected by several factors, such as life-style or genetic variability. Experimental models of aging could be useful in dissecting physiological from pathophysiological events as well as the impact of environmental or genetic factors. They could also represent a platform to study the effect of pharmacological and non-pharmacological “therapies” in delaying brain aging. Aim of present work was the investigation of brain aging in a rodent experimental model by advanced MRI techniques and the assessment of its potential translational value.

Gabriela Hossu¹, Romain Tonnelet², Virginie Voltzenlogel³, Daniel Gounot⁴, Louis Maillard⁵, Liliann Manning^6,7, and Marc Braun^2
1CIC-IT, CHU Nancy, NANCY, France, ²Neuroradiology, CHU Nancy, NANCY, France, ³Psychopathologie clinique, Psychologie de la Santé et Neurosciences Laboratoire Octogone - CERPP, Université de Toulouse, Toulouse, France, ⁴Biophysique, Faculté de Médecine de Strasbourg, Strasbourg, France, ⁵Neurology, CHU Nancy, NANCY, France, ⁶Neuropsychologie, Université de Strasbourg, Strasbourg, France, ⁷U1114, INSERM, France

To access Freesurfer feasibility when studying medial temporal structures resected patients compared to controls. MRI exams where performed at 3T on 45 subjects (22 controls and 23 epileptic patients with resection). Freesurfer software version 5.2 was used in order to study left and right hippocampus. Automatic hippocampus segmentation is possible even for resected patients with a quite good precision.

Allen Q. Ye¹, Galen Thomas-Ramos², Johnson J. GadElkarim^3,4, Olusola A. Ajilore³, Anand Kumar³, Richard L. Magin¹, Jason Leigh², and Alex D. Leow^3,5
1Department of Bioengineering, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL, United States, ²Department of Computer Science, University of Illinois at Chicago, IL, United States, ³Department of Psychiatry, University of Illinois at Chicago, IL, United States, ⁴Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Illinois at Chicago, IL, United States, ⁵Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, University of California Los Angeles, California, United States

Current methods in developing brain connectomes use somewhat arbitrary or heuristic methods. Moreover, restriction in presentation formats typically relegate connectomes into a 2D environment. In this methodological abstract, we propose to use dimensionality reduction to take tractographic networks and convert them into an intrinsic space, one that is more correlated to graph distance. To address the issue of presentation, we use CAVE2™, an immersive virtual reality environment. We believe that using such an immersive space will improve comprehension in clinicians of the complex structure of the brain, as well as allowing for newer, more advanced connectomes to be developed.

Bader Chaarani¹, Cyrille Capel², Jadwiga Zmudka³, Joel Daouk¹, Anthony Fichten², Catherine Gondry-Jouet⁴, Roger Bouzerar¹, and Olivier Balédent^1
1Department of Imaging, Amiens University Hospital, Amiens, Somme, France, ²Department of Neurosurgery, Amiens University Hospital, Amiens, Somme, France, ³Department of Geriatrics, Amiens University Hospital, Amiens, Somme, France, ⁴Department of Radiology, Amiens University Hospital, Amiens, Somme, France

In this work, we study the relationship between ventricular dilatation and cerebrospinal fluid flow at the aqueductal and cerebral levels in 45 neurodegenerative diseases. Results show that cerebrospinal fluid flow does not depend on ventricular morphology.

Narayanan Krishnamurthy¹, Yujuan Zhao², Rebecca Maccloud³, Tiejun Zhao⁴, Shailesh Raval³, Junghwan Kim³, Caterina Rosano³, Howard Aizenstein³, and Tamer Ibrahim^3
1Bioengineering, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, United States, ²Bioengineering, University of Pittsburgh, PA, United States, ³University of Pittsburgh, PA, United States, ⁴Siemens Medical Solutions, PA, United States

We took isotropic 0.5 mm 3D SWI images to visualize small veins. The isotropic voxels allow the semi-automatic segmentation methods to track the vessels across slices. In addition we looked at the feasibility of using 3D mask from isotropic images to segment structures like the hippocampus from high in-plane resolution 2D SW images (0.2x0.2mm)

Kaiming Li¹ and Xiaoping Hu^1
1Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, United States

This study investigated the relationship between cortical folding pattern and characteristics of structural brain network. The cortical folding pattern was measured using curvature of reconstructed cortical surface. The brain network was constructed via probabilistic fiber tractography of multishell high resolution diffusion images. Node degree, clustering coefficient, closeness centrality and average fiber length of the resultant network were quantified and analyzed. Our result indicates that structural brain network may be closely related to cortical folding pattern.

Jackie Leung¹ and Andrea Kassner^1,2
1Physiology and Experimental Medicine, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, ²Medical Imaging, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Non-invasive imaging strategies can assess cerebrovascular reactivity (CVR) by quantifying blood flow changes in response to a vasoactive stimulus. This measure has become a valuable tool in the clinical assessment of cerebrovascular disease. However, little is currently known about CVR from childhood through adolescence. The purpose of this study was to use BOLD MRI to determine how CVR changes with age in healthy children. We observed that CVR increases linearly with age up to the late teens, when a sudden decrease is observed. In contrast cerebral blood flow steadily decreased throughout the measured age range.

Sean Deoni¹, Jonathan O'Muircheartaigh², Holly Dirks¹, Nicole Waskiewicz¹, Lindsay Walker¹, and Douglas Dean^1
1Advanced Baby Imaging Lab, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, United States, ²Neuroimaging, King's College London, England, United Kingdom

Few studies to-date have aimed to comprehensively investigate or map early infant brain development, despite this period being a crucial period of brain and behavioral maturation. In this work, we used the mcDESPOT relaxometry method to quantitative evaluate T1, T2 and myelin water fraction, VFM, in a large sample of healthy and typically-developing children 2.5 months to 5.5 years of age. From 424 total datasets, 14 mean male and female T1, T2 and VFM maps were created spanning 3 to 60 months of age. These publicly-available data (www.babyimaginglab.com/research.htm) provide an unprecedented view into normal brain development.

Jing Wang^1,2, Mengye Lyu^1,2, Jie Gao¹, Yumiao Zhang¹, Yanyah Li¹, Qinli Sun¹, and Jian Yang^1,2
1Department of Diagnostic Radiology, The First Hospital of Medical School, Xi¡¯an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, Shaanxi, China, ²Department of Biomedical Engineering, School of Life Science and Technology, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, Shaanxi, China

Recent studied have demonstrated that neonatal brain networks have hemispheric asymmetry. However, changes of the asymmetry are not yet understood between preterm and term neonates. Our study compared network parameters of cerebral hemispheres between preterm and term neonates. The results showed more evident leftward asymmetry on term neonates with more efficient information transfer than preterm neonates. Moreover, comparing lateralization index of betweenness centrality in the cerebral hemispheres of preterm and term neonates, we concluded for term neonatal brain, left hemisphere has preferably evolved into regions with visual and language function while lateralized regions with cognitive functions come out in the right hemisphere.

Snehashis Roy¹, Wen-Tung Wang¹, John Anthony Butman², and Dzung Pham^1
1Center for Neuroscience and Regenerative Medicine, Henry Jackson Foundation, Bethesda, MD, United States, ²Diagnostic Radiology, National Institute of Health, Bethesda, MD, United States

In functional imaging, PET/CT images are regularly acquired in clinical setting. CT-based electron density attenuation coefficient maps enable correct reconstruction of PET images. Recently, the use of Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) has been popularized in PET/MR systems. We demonstrate that Ultra-short echo time (UTE) dual-echo images can effectively be used to synthesize realistic looking CT via patch matching from subject to atlas. We show that PET reconstruction using synthetic CT based μ-maps are very close to that obtained with original CT based μ-maps and synthetic CT provides better PET reconstruction than DIXON based μ-map.

Tetsu Niwa¹, Tetsuya Yoneda², Takuya Hara¹, Tatsuya Sekiguchi¹, Takakiyo Nomura¹, Takashi Okazaki¹, Shuhei Shibukawa¹, Noriharu Yanagimachi¹, Taro Takahara³, and Yutaka Imai^1
1Radiology, Tokai University School of Medicine, Isehara, Kanagawa, Japan, ²Medical Physics in Advanced Biomedical Sciences, Kumamoto University, Faculty of Life Sciences, Kummamoto, Japan, ³Biomedical Engineering, Tokai University School of Engineering, Kanagawa, Japan

We assessed the phase distribution of the neonatal brain using phase difference image. Phase difference image was created with a combination of the magnitude and masked phase image with relatively small positive phase using 3D gradient echo-planar imaging. Signal ratio at the posterior limb of the internal capsule, the corpus callosum, and the semiovale center was calculated. As a result, a certain phase distribution was noted in neonatal brain, which was different from that of fractional anisotropy at diffusion tensor imaging.

Nicolaas A Puts^1,2, Stefanie Heba³, Tobias Kalisch⁴, Benjamin Glaubitz³, Tobias Schmidt-Wilcke³, Martin Tegenthoff³, Hubert Dinse⁴, and Richard A Edden^1,2
1Russell J. Morgan department of Radiology and Radiological Sciences, The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, United States, ²FM Kirby Center for Functional Brain Imaging, Kennedy Krieger Institute, Baltimore, Maryland, United States, ³Department of Neurology, BG-klinikum Bergmannsheil, Ruhr - University, Bochum, na, Germany, ⁴Neural Plasticity Lab, Institute for Neuroinformatics, Ruhr - University Bochum, Bochum, na, Germany

GABA concentration predicts baseline behavioral sensitivity as well as learning capacity. This has strong implications for understanding learning and brain plasticity.

Deepika Bagga¹, Shilpi Modi¹, Prabhjot Kaur¹, Mohan lal Garg², Debajyoti Bhattacharya³, Subash Khushu¹, and Namita Singh^1
1NMR Research centre, INMAS, Delhi, delhi, India, ²Department of Biophysics, Panjab University, Chandigarh, Punjab, India, ³Department of psychiatry, Base Hospital, Delhi, delhi, India

Language abilities are primarily left lateralized and relatively preserved in alcohol dependents. A recent fMRI study at our centre has also suggested a probable involvement of left parieto-temporal network in maintaining language functions. Thus, to assess the metabolic and structural basis of preserved language abilities, proton in vivo MRS study on parietal and temporal lobe bilaterally and whole brain VBM study were performed on alcohol dependent subjects and healthy controls. The preserved metabolite ratios and intact gray and white matter volumes in left hemisphere as compared to right hemisphere might contribute to preserved language abilities in alcohol dependent subjects.

Pelin Aksit Ciris¹, Maolin Qiu², and R. Todd Constable^3
1Radiology, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States, ²Diagnostic Radiology, Yale University, School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, United States, ³Diagnostic Radiology, Neurosurgery, and Biomedical Engineering, Yale University, School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, United States

We present whole brain quantification of Cerebral Blood Flow at rest and during Propofol administration across a cohort of 32 normal male and female subjects, and the highlight significant differential effects of sex and anesthesia. Our findings were in good agreement with the limited available literature. Such variations should be considered in the interpretation of perfusion or fMRI studies conducted under anesthesia. Improved understanding of the mechanisms underlying these differences, could lead to more specific models of cerebrovascular responses, improved assessment of anesthetic requirements and better management of anesthesia in all patients.

J. B. De Vis¹, E. T. Petersen¹, A. Bhogal¹, L. J. Kappelle², and J. Hendrikse^1
1Radiology, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht, Utrecht, Netherlands, ²Neurology, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht, Utrecht, Netherlands

Previous studies have found conflicting results when it comes to age-related changes in brain hemodynamic parameters. The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of age on brain hemodynamics. For this purpose, calibrated MRI was performed in a group of young healthy subjects and a group of elderly healthy subjects. We found lower whole brain and regional cerebral blood flow, oxygen extraction fraction and oxygen consumption in the elderly subjects compared to the young subjects.

Yongquan Ye¹ and E. Mark Haacke^1,2
1Radiology, Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan, United States, ²Biomedical Engineering, Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan, United States

Caffeine is known to modify both the levels of cerebral persuion and alertness, affecting the resting state connectivity results. Existing studies have demonstrated that the induced connectivity changes are mainly the result of neural stimluation, the role and ratio effect of the perfusion part is yet to be explored. We use flow dephasing dark blood method the aquire resting state data and compare them between normal BOLD data under the pre- and post-caffeine intake conditions. We found that reduction in perfusion during caffeine intake may actually account for a greater effect than expected, and is opposite to caffeine's neural enhancement effects.

Timo De Bondt¹, Dirk Smeets², Wim Van Hecke², Yves Jacquemyn³, and Paul M Parizel^1
1Radiology, Antwerp University Hospital, Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium, ²icoMetrix, Leuven, Belgium, ³Gynaecology and Obstaetrics, Antwerp University Hospital, Antwerp, Belgium

It is well established that sex differences occur in brain structure and function, which result in behavioral dissimilarities. However, only in recent years, the effect of menstrual cycle phase and hormonal contraceptives has been considered. In this research we used spatially constrained independent component analysis to infer differences in resting state BOLD response of the default mode network in a healthy population of young women. When comparing natural cycle (NC) group with hormonal contraceptives (HC) group, results show a decreased activity in the posterior cingulate cortex in the HC group.

Hamed Mojahed¹, Fernando Arias-Mendoza¹, and Truman R Brown^2
1Columbia University, New York, NY, United States, ²Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, SC, United States

We present a method to register waterline spectroscopic brain data to standard MNI brain for inter-subject analysis. High spatial resolution non-water suppressed 3D EPSI data with CSF suppression inversion recovery pulse was acquired from visual cortex during a flickering checkerboard visual presentation. Principal component analysis was performed on the resulting data. 1st PC score map was registered to high spatial resolution structural MPRAGE. The transformation matrix of this registration was applied to the 2nd PC score map. MPRAGE was registered to standard brain and its transformation matrix was applied to 1st or 2nd PC score maps to enable group analysis.

Deepika Bagga¹, Shilpi Modi¹, Prabhjot Kaur¹, Mohan lal Garg², Debajyoti Bhattacharya³, Subash Khushu¹, and Namita Singh^1
1NMR Research centre, INMAS, Delhi, delhi, India, ²Department of Biophysics, Panjab University, Chandigarh, Punjab, India, ³Department of psychiatry, Base Hospital, Delhi, delhi, India

Proton in vivo Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (MRS) study on frontal and parietal brain regions was performed on alcohol dependents and healthy controls to look for the metabolic aberrations underlying the abstract reasoning deficits observed in alcohol dependents as shown by a recent fMRI study at our centre. This study suggested the probable role of fronto-parietal circuit for poorer abstract reasoning abilities. A significant reduction in NAA/Cr and Glx/Cr ratios and a significant increase in Cho/Cr and Ins/Cr ratios was observed which could possibly account for impaired abstract reasoning abilities in alcohol dependents.

Mengye Lyu^1,2, Xianjun Li^1,3, Jing Wang^1,3, Ed X. Wu^2,4, and Jian Yang^1,3
1Department of Radiology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Medical College, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, Shaanxi, China, ²Laboratory of Biomedical Imaging and Signal Processing, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China, ³Department of Biomedical Engineering, School of Life Science and Technology, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, Shaanxi, China, ⁴Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China

This study investigated the structural covariance networks of preterm and term neonatal brains. By examining the global topological properties, inter-hemispheric connections, and nodal centrality shift, we characterized the distinct features of these two networks. The preterm neonatal brains, compared with term neonatal brains, contained fewer high degree nodes and had lower global and local efficiency. Inter-hemispheric connections in preterm neonatal brains were significantly fewer than in term. Regions involved with visual processing and emotion gained higher centrality in the term neonatal brains. These findings revealed the connectivity pattern with increasing regional interaction and integration in early brain development.

Matthias Schmidt¹, Hans-Otto Pörtner¹, and Christian Bock^1
1Integrative Ecophysiology, Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research, Bremerhaven, Bremen, Germany

CO2-induced ocean acidification leads to neurological disorders in fish with unknown consequences for marine ecosystems. In order to investigate the exact mechanisms of how CO2 interferes with the teleost nervous system we developed a stereotactic holding device enabling in vivo MR imaging and spectroscopy on the brain of fish for several days without use of anaesthetics during the experimental procedure. This setup was used to acquire anatomical images of the brain of an Antarctic Notothenoid to identify possible regions for future studies. Following we investigated the effects of severe hypercapnia on the acid-base and energy status.

Xiaopeng Song¹, Yi Zhang², Zhenyu Zhou³, and Yijun Liu^1
1Department of Biomedical Engineering, Peking University, Beijing, Beijing, China, ²School of Life Science and Technology, Xidian University, Xi'an, Shanxi, China, ³GE Health care, Beijing, Beijing, China

To examine the frequency characteristics of regional homogeneity (ReHo) in different brain areas, a data-driven method, Empirical Mode Decomposition, was adopted to decompose the time series of each voxel into several components with distinct frequency bands. ReHo in each of the components were then calculated. Results showed that ReHo in cortical areas were higher and more frequency-dependent than those in the subcortical regions. BOLD oscillations of 0.02-0.04Hz mainly contributed to the cortical ReHo, whereas the ReHo in subcortical areas involved a wider frequency range. Our work may advance the understanding of the neural-physiological basis of local BOLD activities.

Maolin Qiu¹, Ramachandran Ramani², Dustin Scheinost¹, and Robert Todd Constable^1,3
1Diagnostic Radiology, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut, United States, ²Anesthesiology, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut, United States, ³Biomedical Engineering, and Neurosurgery, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut, United States

Intrinsic functional connectivity contrast (ICC) has been used to examine the effects of anesthetics on the human brain, but several issues have been problematic, one of which is that a correlation threshold has to be arbitrarily chosen and different thresholds may yield different results. A new approach based on the intrinsic connectivity distribution (ICD) was proposed to eliminate the need to choose a threshold. In this work we report the anesthetic effects of propofol on functional connectivity based on the ICD method and the results are compared with those obtained using ICC.

David O. Kamson^1,2, Csaba Juhasz^1,2, Harry T Chugani^1,2, and Jeong-Won Jeong^1,2
1Pediatrics and Neurology, Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan, United States, ²PET center, Children's Hospital of Michigan, Detroit, Michigan, United States

We estimated the streamline volume of the leg- and hand-related segments of the corticospinal tract (CST) in children between age 1 and 14 with or without neurological disease using a novel DTI technique. We found a steady decline of right hemispheric leg-related CST volumes with age, while there was no age-effect on the left hemispheric leg-related CST volume, or in either the left or right hand-related CST segments. Our findings are possibly a result of the gradual increase in the dominance of the left hemisphere.

Wim Van Hecke¹, Dirk Loeckx², and Ralf Otte^3
1Radiology, Antwerp University Hospital, Antwerp, Belgium, ²icoMetrix, Belgium, ³tecData AG, Switzerland

In this study, we examined the neuronal processes involved in an imaginary motor task using functional MRI. 15 healthy subjects were asked to imaginary push a cursor on a screen in different spatial directions. We found similar, bilateral brain activations during pushing the cursor in different spatial directions, involving the putamen, cerebellum, middle frontal gyrus, parietal cortex, and supplementary motor area. A predictive analysis showed high reliability to differentiate imaginary pushing from actual finger tapping, but only small differences were found between imaginary pushing in different spatial directions.

Felipe B Tancredi¹, Isabelle Lajoie¹, Danny J Wang², and Richard D Hoge^1
1Centre de recherche de l'IUGM, Montreal, QC, Canada, ²Neurology, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, United States

Functional MRI of BOLD and CBF responses to blood gas manipulations have been used to characterize cerebral vascular reactivity and calibrate physiological models allowing estimation of CMRO₂. Characterizing the test-retest reliability of such measures will aid in power calculations required for future research and clinical applications. We have determined the coefficient of variation for BOLD and CBF responses to hypercapnia/hyperoxia using step changes in inspired CO₂/O₂ to manipulate these blood gases, and a dual-echo pCASL sequence to simultaneously image blood flow and oxygenation. We have found that pCASL measures of BOLD and CBF in grey-matter were robust and consistent.

Maolin Qiu¹, Ramachandran Ramani², Xilin Shen¹, and Robert Todd Constable^1,3
1Diagnostic Radiology, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut, United States, ²Anesthesiology, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut, United States, ³Biomedical Engineering, Neurosurgery, Yale School of Medicine, Connecticut, United States

Understanding how brain function is affected by anesthetics will help both anesthesiologists and neuroscientists reveal the underlying cognitive processes for consciousness and sleep. Anesthetic effects on the resting-state brain connectivity between regions of interest (ROIs) could be evaluated using graph theory, but parcellation of ROIs might be among the critical factors that account for the diversity in the previously observed results. Functional MR image voxels can be grouped into brain ROIs based on the resting-state connectivity coherence. In this study we evaluated the anesthetic effects of propofol on the connectivity between ROIs parcellated based on the similarity of resting-state time courses.

Ze Wang¹, Tiejun Zhao², and Linqing Li^3
1Univ of Penn, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, ²Siemens Co. Ltd, PA, United States, ³Oxford University, Oxford, United Kingdom

Cerebral blood volume (CBV) is an important neuro-physiological measure which is of great interest to neuroscientific and basic research. Non-invasively measuring CBV has been a challenge due to the difficulty of distinguishing tissue signal from both the arterial and venous flow signal. By using the flow-sensitized DANTE preparation sequence, we proposed a technique for non-invasively measuring regional CBV.

Yajing Zhang¹, Michael I. Miller¹, Linda Chang², and Kenichi Oishi^3
1Center for Imaging Science, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, United States, ²Department of Medicine, School of Medicine, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, HI, United States, ³Department of Radiology, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, United States

Many neurological diseases and functional defects in infants are correlated with abnormal development of specific cortical regions. Therefore, it is important to monitor neonatal cortical development using quantitative tools. We proposed a volume-surface analysis tool based on diffeomorphic mapping technique, and provide informative location-based measures on longitudinal data for characterizing the spatial-temporal growth patterns in the neonatal population.

Andrew Melbourne¹, Zach Eaton-Rosen¹, Giles Kendall², Alan Bainbridge³, Nicola J Robertson², Neil Marlow², and Sebastien Ourselin^1
1CMIC, University College London, London, London, United Kingdom, ²Academic Neonatology, UCL Institute for Women's Health, London, United Kingdom,³Medical Physics, University College Hospital, London, United Kingdom

This abstract describes the development of a novel multi-modal biomarker of brain energetic efficiency and its application to a cohort of very-preterm neonates.

Shalmali Dharmadhikari^1,2, Ali Yildiz³, Clara Quetscher³, Witold Chmielewski³, Ulrike Dydak^1,2, and Christian Beste^4
1School of Health Sciences, Purdue University, W Lafayette, Indiana, United States, ²Department of Radiology and Imaging Sciences, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, Indiana, United States, ³Institute for Cognitive Neuroscience, Biopsychology, Ruhr University, Bochum, Germany,⁴Cognitive Neurophysiology, Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, University of Dresden, Germany

A neurobiochemical-electrophysiological study was conducted to examine the role of gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) in the mechanism of action cascading, and hence the mechanisms mediating superior “multi-tasking” performance in airplane pilot trainees vs controls. Airplane pilot trainees exhibited stronger coupling leading to superior action control in situations requiring a cascading of actions. The results indicate that the speed of responding as well as attentional gating functions depend on striatal GABA concentrations. The results show that GABA is an important modulator of “multitasking” abilities.

Zhang Yumiao¹, Luo Xue^2,3, Gao Jie³, and Yang Jian^3
1The First Affiliated Hospital of Medical College, Xi¡¯an Jiaotong University.Xi¡¯an, PR China, Xi'an, Shaanxi, China, ²Department of Biomedical Engineering, School of Life Science and Technology,Xi' an Jiaotong Universi, China, ³The First Affiliated Hospital of Medical College, Xi¡¯an Jiaotong University.Xi¡¯an, PR China, Shaanxi, China

Summary Aim: Preschoolers To explore the morphological changes of cortical auditory language of preschoolers by magnetic resonance. Methods: The cortex of the superior temporal gyrus was divided from the 3D-FSPGR T1WI images by a tool of the FreeSurfer 5.1 software package, and then measured their morphology including volume, surface area and thickness of the cortex. Results: The difference of total bilateral superior temporal gyrus, only the statistical outcome of total cortex thickness is significant as follows: t= 2.965, p=0.006, the right superior temporal gyrus showed significant advantages. Conclusion: The right superior temporal gyrus showed significant advantages in exploring human evolution and progress is significant in exploring human evolution and progress.

Hyug-Gi Kim¹, Geon-Ho Jahng², Dal-Mo Yang², Kyung-Nam Ryu³, Dong-Wook Sung³, and Woo-Suk Choi^3
1Biomedical Enginerring, Kyung Hee University, Gyeonggi-do, Korea, ²Radiology, Kyung Hee University Hospital-Gangdong, Seoul, Korea, ³Radiology, Kyung Hee University Hospital, Seoul, Korea

To investigate neuronal changes depended on a b0 value on diffusion fMRI, we designed a diffusion-based fMRI sequence with two different b0 values. One DWI with b=0 s/mm2 (b0_b) was obtained during the first baseline scan and another DWI with b=0 s/mm2 (b0_a) was again obtained during the last stimulation scan. A single-shot spin echo sequence was run for trace-weighted imaging on 16 young subjects. We calculated ADC maps using b0_a and b0_b called as ADC_a and ADC_b, respectively. Results and discussion are presented.

Johannes Bernarding¹, Sebastian Baecke¹, Claus Tempelmann², and Andre Brechmann^3
1Medical Faculty, Institute for Biometry and Medical Informatics, Otto-von-Guericke University, Magdeburg, Sachsen-Anhalt, Germany, ²Medical Faculty, Clinic for Neurology, Otto-von-Guericke University, Magdeburg, Sachsen-Anhalt, Germany, ³Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology, Magdeburg, Sachsen-Anhalt, Germany

In a cross-modal audio-visual fMRI study an unusual linear ramp-like increase of the hemodynamic response function (HRF) was observed in the auditory cortex during isolated visual stimulation while during coupled audio-visual stimulation the well-known block-design HRF was seen. It is hypothesized that expecting coupled visual-acoustic stimuli while only an isolated visual stimulus was presented led to an decrease of the cortical sensitivity threshold thus increasing unconsciously the perception of the ambient constant scanner noise. This result may be interpreted as evidence that internal expectations can lead to strongly changed perceptions even if external stimuli remain constant.

Jan Willem van Dalen¹, Henri J M M Mutsaerts², Lisa S M Eurelings¹, Martijn D Steenwijk³, Hugo Vrenken³, Matthan W A Caan², Aart J Nederveen², and Edo Richard^1
1Neurology, Academic Medical Center, Amsterdam, Noord Holland, Netherlands, ²Radiology, Academic Medical Center, Amsterdam, Noord Holland, Netherlands, ³Radiology and Nuclear Medicine, VU University Medical Center, Noord Holland, Netherlands

White matter hyper intensities of presumed vascular origin (WMH) are a common finding on brain MRI in the elderly, associated with hypertension, cognitive decline and mortality. Although they are thought to arise from low grade ischemia, the relation between WMH load and cerebral blood flow (CBF) remains to be fully elucidated. In this study, WMH and CBF data, including transit time, were obtained from 3D FLAIR and pCASL (including vascular crushing) MRI scans of 196 community dwelling elderly with systolic hypertension. Unlike total and crushed CBF, grey matter transit time was significantly associated with increasing WMH load.

John Huston¹, Arvin Arani¹, Matthew C Murphy¹, Kevin J Glaser¹, Armando Manduca², David S Lake², Scott Kruse¹, Clifford R Jack¹, and Richard Ehman^1
1Department of Radiology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, United States, ²Department of Physiology and Biomedical Engineering, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, United States

Objective: To evaluate global and regional brain stiffness as a function of age and gender using an improved magnetic resonance elastography (MRE) approach. Methods: Full volume 3-dimensional brain stiffness measurements were acquired in a total of 45 healthy amyloid-negative, cognitively normal subjects in the age range of 56-89 years. Results: Significant negative correlations between age and brain stiffness were observed in the cerebrum and the frontal, parietal, occipital, and temporal lobes. A significant gender bias was also observed in the occipital and temporal lobes. Conclusions: These results suggest both age and gender impact stiffness in certain regions of the brain.

Yosef A Berlow^1,2, David L Lahna³, Daniel L Schwartz⁴, Randall L Woltjer⁵, Robin L Guariglia³, Lisa C. Silbert³, Jeffrey A Kaye³, and William D Rooney^1,2
1Advanced Imaging Research Center, Oregon Health & Science University, Portland, Oregon, United States, ²Department of Behavioral Neuroscience, Oregon Health & Science University, Portland, Oregon, United States, ³Department of Neurology, Oregon Health & Science University, Portland, Oregon, United States, ⁴Department of Psychiatry, Oregon Health & Science University, Portland, Oregon, United States, ⁵Department of Pathology, Oregon Health & Science University, Portland, Oregon, United States

Cigarette smoking has been demonstrated to significantly alter systemic iron metabolism. This study utilized R₂ measurements from MRI scans of 81 healthy elderly individuals to investigate the relationship between smoking history and MRI measures of brain iron content using a region of interest analysis. Individuals with long-term smoking histories were found to have increased R₂ values in the caudate and putamen compared to aged-matched nonsmokers and individuals with short-term smoking histories. Increased R₂ values were correlated with pack year history in the caudate. These findings suggest that smoking cigarettes may increase lifetime brain iron accumulation in these basal ganglia structures.

Rok Berlot^1,2, Claudia Metzler-Baddeley³, Derek K Jones³, and Michael J O'Sullivan^1
1Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, London, United Kingdom, ²Department of Neurology, University Medical Centre Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia, ³Cardiff University Brain Research Imaging Centre (CUBRIC), School of Psychology, and the Neuroscience and Mental Health Research Institute, Cardiff University, Cardiff, United Kingdom

The link between age-related alterations in individual tracts, whole white matter and network topology remains unclear. In healthy elderly, we explored microstructural variation in temporal association tracts, its relationship to global white matter alterations and structural network topology. Microstructural measures of the fornix, both uncinate fasciculi and left parahippocampal cingulum show significant relationships with age, but only the fornix shows a relationship independent of global white matter alterations. Network global efficiency decreases with age, which is mediated by fornix microstructure. The fornix demonstrates age-related variation not shared with the rest of the brain and a tight link to network topology.

Jeremy Deverdun^1,2, Tasnime Akbaraly³, Frederic Ben Naim⁴, Alain Bonafe⁵, Adam Brickman⁶, Celine Charroud³, Stephane Chemouny¹, Jeannette Fareh⁷, Nicolas Menjot de Champfleur⁵, François Molino⁸, Olivier Soulier⁴, Jason Steffener⁶, Florence Portet³, Yaakov Stern⁶, Karen Ritchie³, and Emmanuelle Le Bars^5
1Intrasense, Montpellier, Herault, France, ²Theoretical Physics, Universite Montpellier 2, Montpellier, Herault, France, ³Unit 1061 : Neuropsychiatry: Epidemiological and clinical research, Inserm, Herault, France, ⁴Intrasense, Herault, France, ⁵Service de neuroradiologie, CHU Gui de Chauliac, Montpellier, Herault, France, ⁶The Taub Institute for Research on Alzheimer's Disease and the Aging Brain, New York, United States, ⁷SysDiag UMR3145, CNRS, Herault, France, ⁸Theoritical Physics, Universite Montpellier 2, Montpellier, Herault, France

Cerebral blood flow (CBF) is an important factor in brain function. We to assess the link between quantified gray matter CBF and epidemiological factors obtained 12 years before, on a large cohort of elderly subjects. Mean and regional CBF were obtained from Pulsed Arterial Spin Labeling sequence after correction for white matter lesion and partial volume effect. Results exhibit significant decrease in CBF in dyslipidemia and an increase in hypertension. The regional analysis highlights localization of these modifications in posterior circulation territories (hypertension), and regions of the anterior circulation (dyslipidemia). Those two factors seems able to predict CBF variations.

Paola Valsasina¹, Maria A. Rocca¹, Alessandro Meani¹, Francesco Mele¹, Federica Agosta¹, and Massimo Filippi^1
1Neuroimaging Research Unit, Institute of Experimental Neurology, San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, Milan, MI, Italy

Using graph theoretical analysis, we analyzed the combined effects of age and gender on large-scale functional brain networks. Significant age-related abnormalities were detected in both genders. Males showed higher average network values than females. Both genders experienced a significant age-related decline of nodal degree and local efficiency of several regions of the frontal lobe, temporal regions, posterior cingulate cortex/precuneus and deep gray matter nuclei. The age-related decline of functional network connectivity measures in both genders might contribute to clarify fundamental pathophysiologic aspects of healthy aging.

Iwo Jerzy Bohr¹, Claire McDonald², Jiabao He³, Simon Kerr⁴, Julia Newton⁵, and Andrew M Blamire^1
1Newcastle Magnetic Resonance Centre, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom, ²Newcastle University, United Kingdom, ³Aberdeen Biomedical Imaging Centre, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, United Kingdom, ⁴Institute for Ageing and Health, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom, ⁵Clinical Academic Office, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom

Hypoxic ischemia is considered to be a major factor contributing to formation of age-related white matter lesion. We hypothesize that transient hypoxic episodes caused for instance by standing could contribute to this process. Using quantitative fMRI (measuring effective transverse relaxation rate; R2*) we investigated the brain areas particularly vulnerable to transient hypoxia during performance of Valsava manoeuvre (VM). We employed general linear model to estimate the impact of VM on R2*. We found that deoxygenation statistical map overlapped strongly with watershed region between the middle cerebral and posterior artery perfusion territories.

Andreas Glatz¹, Lukas Pirpamer², Christian Langkammer², Maria C. Valdés Hernández¹, Mark E. Bastin¹, Joanna M. Wardlaw¹, Franz Fazekas², Reinhold Schmidt², and Stefan Ropele^2
1Brain Research Imaging Centre, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom, ²Department of Neurology, Medical University of Graz, Styria, Austria

Multifocal T2*-weighted hypointensities in the basal ganglia are linked to focal mineralization and have been proposed as a novel biomarker for microvascular disease and ageing. In this study we investigated the progression of basal ganglia T2*w hypointensities and the histology of the underlying tissue with quantitative MRI in a cohort of 300 community-dwelling subjects (183 females; 64 ± 11 years) without history or signs of neuropsychiatric disorders. The results indicate a significant association of their volume with age and that they are linked to mostly aggregated and paramagnetic trace metals, which might be of vascular origin.

Farida A Grinberg^1,2, Ivan I Maximov¹, Ezequiel Farrher¹, Irene Neuner^1,3, Laura Amort^1,4, Heike Thönneßen^1,5, Kerstin Konrad^6,7, and N. Jon Shah^1,8
1INM-4, Forschungszentrum Juelich, Juelich, Germany, ²Department of Neurology, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany, ³Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, RWTH Aachen University, Germany, ⁴Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany, ⁵Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, RWTH Aachen University, Germany, ⁶Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany, ⁷Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine – 3, Forschungszentrum, Germany, ⁸Department of Neurology, RWTH Aachen University, Germany

Recently, diffusion kurtosis imaging (DKI) has become interesting as an efficient method for characterising non-Gaussian water diffusion in brain tissue. In this work, we used DKI to evaluate and compare water diffusion properties in the whole brain and in anatomically defined regions in a group of children and in a group of adults. An intergroup comparison using TBSS and averaged atlas-based regional data analysis shows that DKI metrics are significantly more sensitive to age related microstructural changes than conventional DTI.

Andreana Benitez¹, Clifford Chan¹, Ali Tabesh¹, Jensen H. Jensen¹, and Joseph A. Helpern^1
1Center for Biomedical Imaging, Department of Radiology and Radiological Science, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, SC, United States

Using Diffusional Kurtosis Imaging (DKI), we found significant decline in mean, axial, and radial kurtoses in white matter (WM) in the aging brain (N=27, ages 55-83). We also found that these metrics were correlated with executive functions (i.e. Trailmaking Test-Part B), primarily in fronto-parietal regions, over and above the effect of age. Consistent with and in extension of prior literature, our results highlight the pervasiveness of WM degeneration in the aging brain and its association with executive functions, using a clinically viable innovation in diffusion MRI.

Robert S Vorburger¹, Christian G Habeck^1,2, Atul Narkhede¹, Vanessa A Guzman¹, Jennifer J Manly^1,2, Yaakov Stern^1,2, Richard Mayeux^1,2, and Adam M Brickman^1,2
1Taub Institute, Columbia University, New York, New York, United States, ²Department of Neurology, Columbia University, New York, New York, United States

The fractional anisotropy is one of the most popular diffusion tensor imaging parameters to investigate white matter microstructural abnormalities associated with cognition in aging. However, fractional anisotropy often does not provide enough reliability and sensitivity. Here, we use bootstrap metrics of the principal eigenvector which may provide more sensitive measures of fiber integrity for the examination of brain-behavior relationships. Using the fornix as a region-of-interest, we show that these new metrics predict memory performance independently compared to fractional anisotropy.

Nan-Jie Gong^1,2, Chun-Sing Wong¹, Chun-Chung Chan³, Lam-Ming Leung⁴, Yiu-Ching Chu⁵, and Queenie Chan^6
1Diagnostic Radiology, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China, ²Radiology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, United States, ³Geriatrics & Medicine, United Christian Hospital, Hong Kong, China, ⁴Psychiatry, United Christian Hospital, Hong Kong, China, ⁵Radiology, Kwong Wah Hospital, Hong Kong, China,⁶Philips Healthcare, Hong Kong, China

we utilised DKI method in both deep gray and white matters of normal aging adults. The results suggested that diffusional kurtosis can provide measurements in a new dimension complementary to those of diffusivity metrics. Kurtosis together with diffusivity can more comprehensively characterize microstructural compositions and age-related changes than diffusivity alone. In terms of deep gray matter, higher MK and FA in the globus pallidus, substantia nigra and red nucleus mirrored the higher microstructural complexity and directionality compared to putamen, caudate nucleus and thalamus. In particular, we proposed that the unique age-related increasing of FA, MK and KR in the putamen may be resulted from iron deposition.

Manju Liu¹, Saifeng Liu², Dane Dicicco³, Charbel Habib⁴, Yanwei Miao⁵, and E. Mark Haacke^1,3
1Department of Biomedical Engineering, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI, United States, ²School of Biomedical Engineering, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, ³The MRI Institute for Biomedical Research, Detroit, MI, United States, ⁴Department of Radiology, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI, United States, ⁵Department of Radiology, The First Affiliated Hospital, Dalian, Liaoning, China

Iron is a vital element for human brains to function properly. Iron overload or deficiencies is harmful to the brain. This study focuses on establishing the brain iron deposition reference in healthy people using magnetic susceptibility mapping (SWIM), which is generated from Susceptibility-Weighted Imaging (SWI) phase images. We recruited 180 normal subjects, and the 3D volume of 7 brain nuclei were analyzed. The results show iron content increases with age in Putamen, Red Nucleus and Caudate Nucleus. The iron changing pattern in our study is consistent with Hallgren and Sourander’s work, which was performed on the post mortem human brains.

Chandana Kodiweera¹, Andrew K Alexander², and Yu-Chien Wu^1
1Psychological and Brain Sciences, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, United States, ²Department of Medical Physics, University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, Madison, Wisconsin, United States

To better characterize the findings of diffusion-weighted imaging with underlying biological and pathological changes of the human brain, several multiple-compartments diffusion models were proposed recently. In this study, we used Hybrid Diffusion Imaging (HYDI), a 5-shells diffusion-encoding scheme, with Neurite Orientation and Density Imaging (NODDI) data analysis. Fifty-two subjects aged from 18 to 72 years were studied. We found that the orientation dispersion index increases as age increases suggesting that the white matter organization loses coherence over age. While WM organization seems to be more sensitive with normal aging, the overall intracellular volume fraction remains stable over the aging course.

SHU-JUAN FAN^1,2, Peng CAO^1,2, Wenwen A. Han^1,2, and Ed Wu^1,2
1Laboratory of Biomedical Imaging and Signal Processing, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Hong Kong, SAR, China, ²Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Hong Kong, SAR, China

Extremely slow water diffusion at ultrahigh b values in brain is thought to be related to restricted water diffusion in the nerve fibers and transmembrane water flux. With diffusion-weighted MRS, this study demonstrated a decrease of slow water ADC and increase of its fraction with aging, and the gradual development of the slow-diffusion water pool during postnatal development. These results were potentially related to the degenerative changes in nerve fiber during aging and the development of axonal membranes and myelin sheath during early life, supporting slow water diffusion as an intracellular biomarker for assessing aging-related structural brain changes.

Bo Hou¹, Yuan Tian², Hui You¹, Xin-hua Wan², and Feng Feng^1
1Department of Radiology, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Beijing, China, ²Department of Neurology, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Beijing, China

This study compared brain changes between oromandibular dystonia£¨OMD£©and healthy controls with VBM for the first time, revealing some motor-relative regions involved and implying some brain changes that may be relative to nonmotor manifestations.

Yasutaka Fushimi¹, Tomohisa Okada¹, Taha M. Mehemed¹, Akira Yamamoto¹, Mitsunori Kanagaki¹, Aki Kido¹, Koji Fujimoto¹, Naotaka Sakashita², and Kaori Togashi^1
1Kyoto University Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto, Kyoto, Japan, ²Toshiba Medical Systems Corporation, Otawara, Tochigi, Japan

Oxygen-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging demonstrated differences of characteristics of cerebrospinal fluid.

Amgad Droby¹, Adriane Gröger¹, Isabella Spiwoks-Becker², Anne Schänzer³, Till Acker³, Frauke Zipp¹, and Ralf Deichmann^4
1Neurology department-Neuroimaging center (NIC), Johannes Gutenberg university hospital, Mainz, Deutschland, Germany, ²Institute of microanatomy and neurobiology, Johannes Gutenberg university hospital, Mainz, Deutschland, Germany, ³Institute for neuropathology, Justus Liebig University, Giessen, Deutschland, Germany, ⁴Brain Imaging Center (BIC), Goethe University, Frankfurt am Main, Deutschland, Germany

Multi-centre MRI studies are essential for enrolling large and diverse patient cohorts in the study of neurological diseases. Therefore, a multi-centre MRI standardization tool that mimics the in-vivo human brain is needed. Here, we provide evidence that a human post-mortem brain is a valid model for the standardization of multi-centre MRI studies. Using T1 mapping, T2, MTR and PD, the relaxation times of this model were found to be stable over the time course. Moreover, such a model can provide volumetric measures of GM and WM, which could also be used for intra- as well as inter-site comparisons.

Camilla Rossi Espagnet¹, Lev Bangiyev¹, Kai Tobias Block², Robert Grimm³, Fernando Boada², Timothy Shepherd¹, David Chen², James Babb², and Girish Fatterpekar^1
1Neuroradiology, NYULMC, New York, NY, United States, ²Radiology, NYULMC, New York, NY, United States, ³Pattern Recognition Lab, FAU, Erlangen, Nuremberg, Germany

Purpose of this study is to evaluate signal-time curves (STC) utilizing GRASP to optimize acquisition time (TA) for dynamic pituitary evaluation. STCs generated from normal appearing anterior pituitary gland and microadenomas in 20 patients evaluated peak enhancement at 60 seconds and then every 10 seconds. There was no significant change in peak enhancement of anterior pituitary gland 90 seconds after administration of contrast. Also, a significant difference in peak enhancement between microadenoma and anterior pituitary gland could be consistently measured during this time. Our findings demonstrate that 90 second TA is sufficient to provide optimal dynamic evaluation of pituitary gland.

Mitsunobu Kunimi¹, Sachiko Kiyama¹, and Toshiharu Nakai^1
1National Center for Geriatrics and Gerontology, Obu, Aichi, Japan

We compared the association between task difficulty and cerebral activity during visual N-back task between the young and elderly groups using blood oxygenation level dependency fMRI. The change of percent signal change depending on task difficulty shows reduction in the up-regulation of the regions responsible for visuospatial working memory in response to increasing task demands in the elderly. It was suggested that the regulation ability of load of visuospatial working memory was decline depending on age. It might cause that elderly cannot utilize visuospatial working memory efficiently.

Uwe Klose¹, Marion Batra¹, and Thomas Nägele^1
1Department of Diagnostic and Interventional Neuroradiology, University Hospital of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany

Readout-segmented EPI (rs-EPI) sequences were used in in clinical routine examinations. Calculated ADC histograms were were examined for the detection of of age-dependent brain volume losses. 783 patient measurements were performed with a 3T scanner. Data were checked visually and 233 data-sets with pathologies were excluded. The value of the relative number of pixels in the brain compartment of the histogram (ADC-values lower than 1.15 10^-3 mm² /s) of each subject was evaluated. The results for all patients were drawn against age and fitted by a polynomial. The decrease of the fitted curve was stronger for men than for women.

Michel Thiebaut de Schotten^1,2, Katrine Rojkova¹, Marika Urbanski¹, Frederic Humbert¹, Flavio Dell'Acqua², and Emmanuelle Volle^1
1Brain and Spine Institute, Paris, France, ²Natbrainlab - Institute of Psychiatry, London, United Kingdom

Cognitive decline affects predominantly executive functions, and brain changes seem to distribute unevenly, concerning predominantly the frontal region. Hence, the study of the frontal connections is of particular interest for the neurosciences of ageing. Here our results suggest for the first time that aging alters significantly specific long and short tracts in the frontal lobes which brings up interesting hypotheses on a pathophysiological explanation for aging decline in visuospatial and verbal working memory, memory encoding and retrieval, reward-based associative learning that can be tested in the elderly.

Jean-Philippe Coutu^1,2, H. Diana Rosas², and David Salat^2,3
1Health Sciences and Technology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, United States, ²MGH/HST Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, MA, United States, ³VA Boston Healthcare System, MA, United States

Age-associated white matter degeneration has previously been investigated using techniques such as diffusion tensor imaging (DTI). Diffusion kurtosis imaging (DKI), an extension of DTI, accounts for non-Gaussian water diffusion and can reflect alterations in the distribution and diffusion properties of tissue compartments. Little work so far has focused on combining diffusion measures to understand how age affects white matter regionally. We show here that a combination of DTI and DKI metrics enables the classification of white matter regions according to specific multivariate patterns of age-associated changes that might be representative of different types of microstructural pathology in brain aging.

Thomas Walker¹, Christos Michaelides¹, Harry Parkes², William Crum¹, Amy Herlihy³, and Po-Wah So^1
1Department of Neuroimaging, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, London, United Kingdom, ²CR-UK Clinical MR Research Group, Institute of Cancer Research, Sutton, Surrey, United Kingdom, ³Agilent technologies, Yarnton, Oxfordshire, United Kingdom

Brain iron accumulation with ageing may play a role in senescent processes, with age-related increases in basal ganglia R2 and R2* observed in man and associated with increased iron. Here, we show similar increases in R2 and R2* values of the basal ganglia in aged C57BL/6J mice compared to young. Subsequent direct measurement of iron by synchrotron radiation X-ray fluorescence elemental iron mapping suggests the increased R2 and R2* values here may indeed arise from higher iron concentrations in this region. Thus, iron dyshomeostasis may play a role in ageing and MR relaxometry may be used to monitor ageing processes.

Christian Langkammer¹, Lukas Pirpamer¹, Stephan Seiler¹, Tamara Pendl¹, Ferdinand Schweser², Andreas Deistung², Petra Katschnig-Winter ¹, Mariella Koegl-Wallner¹, Eva Maria Stoegerer¹, Juergen Rainer Reichenbach², Franz Fazekas¹, Stefan Ropele¹, Reinhold Schmidt¹, and Petra Schwingenschuh^1
1Department of Neurology, Medical University of Graz, Graz, Austria, ²Medical Physics Group, Institute of Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology I, University Hospital-Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Jena, Germany

Quantitative susceptibility mapping (QSM) and R2* relaxation rate mapping, both methods validated highly sensitive for iron, demonstrated elevated iron concentration in the putamen of patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD) showed with respect to healthy controls.

Jason Langley¹, Jan Sedlacik², Xiaoping Hu¹, Jens Fiehler², and Kai Boelmans^3
1Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University, Atlanta, GA, United States, ²Department of Neuroradiology, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE), Hamburg, Germany, ³Department of Psychiatry, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE), Hamburg, Germany

The substantia nigra, subthalamic nucleus, and red nucleus are important structures in the study of Parkinson’s disease and all three structures contain high concentrations of iron. A hallmark of Parkinson’s disease is the increased deposition of iron in the substantia nigra and red nucleus as well as the loss of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra. This study compares volumetric estimates of the substantia nigra, subthalamic nucleus, and red nucleus. Statistically significant volumetric difference between parkinson’s disease and control groups in the red nucleus and the phase difference between the two groups in the substantia nigra are reported.

Mirco Cosottini¹, Mauro Costagli², Daniela Frosini³, Ilaria Pesaresi⁴, Laura Biagi⁵, Roberto Ceravolo³, Ubaldo Bonuccelli³, and Michela Tosetti^5
1University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy, ²Imago7, Pisa, Italy, ³University of Pisa, Italy, ⁴Santa Chiara Hospital, Italy, ⁵IRCCS Stella Maris, Italy

This contribution demonstrates that a short (4’02”) 3D multi-echo GRE sequence at 7.0T targeting the midbrain allows a precise characterization of Substantia Nigra and the visualization of its inner organization in healthy subjects and in patients with Parkinson’s disease. This imaging sequence permits the diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease with remarkable accuracy.

Nicholas G Dowell¹, Cynthia Wong¹, Emilie Elliot², Roshani Patel², Paul S Tofts¹, Martin Fisher³, and Mara Cercignani^1
1Clinical Imaging Sciences Centre, Brighton and Sussex Medical School, Falmer, Brighton and Hove, United Kingdom, ²Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, London, United Kingdom, ³Elton John Centre, Brighton and Sussex University Hospital, Brighton, United Kingdom

The introduction of highly-active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) has increased the life expectancy and quality of life of patients with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). In spite of this treatment, the incidence of HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders has continued to rise. Here we study 24 non-cognitively-implaired HIV+ patients (12 untreated, and 12 treated with HAART) to detect early subtle brain changes. We use diffusion tensor imaging and voxel-based morphometry to show that mean diffusivity and radial diffusivity is significantly increased in the patient cohort. Volume loss is also detected among the patient group. This study reveals that subtle brain changes can be detected before the manifestation of cognitive deficit.

Laura Ludovica Gramegna¹, Claudia Testa¹, Claudio Bianchini¹, David Neil Manners¹, Rita Rinaldi², Giovanni Rizzo¹, Valerio Carelli^3,4, Raffaele Lodi¹, and Caterina Tonon^1
1Functional MR Unit, Department of Biomedical and NeuroMotor Sciences (DiBiNeM), University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy, ²Unit of Neurology, S.Orsola-Malpighi Hospital, Bologna, Italy, ³Department of Biomedical and NeuroMotor Sciences (DiBiNeM), University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy, ⁴IRCCS Institute of Neurological Science of Bologna, Bologna, Italy

Friedreich’s ataxia (FRDA) is the commonest form of autosomal recessive spino-cerebellar ataxia. We investigate by 1H-MRS possible metabolic changes in the cerebellar hemispheres and their relationship with genetic and clinical severity in 28 patients. Patients had lower NAA/Cr (p<0.001) and Cho/Cr (p=0.004) in comparison to the controls. MD values calculated in the same VOI were increased in patients (p<0.001). NAA/Cr reduction correlated with the increase in MD values, disease duration and clinical severity as assessed by the ICARS scale. Biomarkers derived from 1H-MRS can be used to monitor disease progression and to evaluate the effect of therapy in clinical trials.

Timothy Shepherd¹, Sohae Chung¹, Christopher Glielmi², Alon Mogilner³, Himanshu Bhat⁴, Stephen F Cauley⁵, Kawin Setsompop⁵, Fernando Boada¹, and Douglas Kondziolka^3
1Bernard and Irene Schwartz Center for Biomedical Imaging, Department of Radiology, New York University School of Medicine, New York, NY, United States, ²Siemens Healthcare, New York, NY, United States, ³Department of Neurosurgery, New York University School of Medicine, New York, NY, United States, ⁴Siemens Healthcare, Charlestown, MA, United States, ⁵A.A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Dept. of Radiology, MGH, Charlestown, MA, United States

This study combined two recent innovations, track density imaging (TDI) and multi-band diffusion acquisitions, to create a clinically feasible 3-T MRI protocol for thalamic parcellation to identify the ventral intermediate nucleus (VIM) in elderly patients with essential tremor prior to functional neurosurgery. This represents a rapid translation of novel research technology to clinical practice without requiring high-field MRI or long scan times poorly tolerated by real patients.

Varan Govind¹, Anai Cuadra², Elizabeth Willen², M Judy D Post¹, Kristopher Arheart³, and Sulaiman Sheriff^1
1Radiology, University of Miami, Miami, Florida, United States, ²Pediatrics, University of Miami, Miami, Florida, United States, ³Epidemiology and Public Health, University of Miami, Miami, Florida, United States

The long term impact of HIV infection and the potential effects of its therapeutics on the brain are not completely characterized. Previous brain imaging studies have assessed only the changes in white matter and some deep gray matter structures. In this study, all gray matter structures within the brain are evaluated using diffusion kurtosis imaging metrics in adults perinatally infected with HIV and a matched control group for comparisons. The results indicate significant changes in 19 of the 60 gray matter structures evaluated. These changes may indicate underlying pathologies responsible for HIV-associated neurocognitive disorder (HAND) in people with HIV infection.

Ling Ling Chan^1,2, Helmut Rumpel¹, Kia Min Ng², Chooi Sum Yeoh¹, and Eng King Tan^2,3
1Singapore General Hospital, Singapore, Singapore, ²Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School, Singapore, Singapore, ³National Neuroscience Institute, Singapore

This longitudinal case control DTI study evaluated the rate of change in FA and ADC in Parkinson’s disease over a 5 year period. We found an increased FA and ADC in the basal ganglia and substantia nigra. There was a significant difference in the rate of change in the DTI parametrics in the putamen, thalamus, substantia nigra and frontal white matter between PD and controls. The increased FA of gray nuclei in PD over time was unexpected and possibly related to iron deposition. The rate of DTI changes over time may be useful as potential imaging markers of disease progression.

Linda Chaabane¹, Nilo Riva¹, Caterina Bendotti², Angelo Quattrini¹, and Giancarlo Comi^1
1INSPE, San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Milano, Italy, ²Laboratory of Molecular Neurobiology, Dept of Neuroscience, Mario Negri Institute for Pharmacological Research, Milano, Italy

In this study, the progression of peripheral nervous system damage was monitored in the hSOD-1G93A rat model of ALS by in vivo MRI. Both T2 relaxation time and DTI parameters were analyzed from the preclinical onset to advanced stage of degeneration. This in vivo follow-up of disease progression allowed the definition of T2 relaxation time as a high sensitive marker of early nerve alterations as detected at asymptomatic stage. T2 increase correlated to degenerating nerve fibers associated to endoneurial oedema.

Linda Chang¹, Caroline S. Jiang¹, Vanessa Douet¹, Eric T Cunningham¹, Nataliya Holmes¹, Ahnate Lim², Xin Zhang¹, and Thomas Ernst^1
1Department of Medicine (Neurology), University of Hawaii at Manoa, John A. Burns School of Medicine, Honolulu, Hawaii, United States, ²Department of Psychology, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, Hawaii, United States

Despite effective antiretroviral medications for HIV viral suppression in the plasma, milder forms of HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders (HAND) remain prevalent. Polymorphism of the Val¹⁵⁸Met for the Catechol-O-Methyltransferase (COMT) gene may play an important role in the development of HAND. 83 participants (40 HIV+ subjects and 43 HIV-seronegative controls) were studied using resting state fMRI to evaluate age-dependent changes in functional connectivity (rs-fcMRI) in relation to the COMT genotypes. HIV subjects with Met/Met alleles had the steepest and greater than normal age-dependent decline in rs-fcMRI. COMT genotype combined with rsfcMRI may be useful for predicting which patient may develop HAND.

Antonio Giorgio¹, Paolo Frezzotti², Ilaria Motolese², Eduardo Motolese², Antonio Federico¹, and Nicola De Stefano^1
1Department of Medicine, Surgery and Neuroscience, University of Siena, Siena, Siena, Italy, ²Department of Surgery, Ophthalmology Unit, University of Siena, Siena, Siena, Italy

By using a multimodal MRI approach, this study demonstrates in patients with advanced primary open angle glaucoma (POAG) the presence of structural and functional changes that go well beyond the visual system, thus providing evidence that POAG can be considered a vision disorder belonging to the group of neurodegenerative conditions and, as such, spreading throughout the brain

Xueying Ling¹, Zhongping Zhang², Zhoushe Zhao², Lian Huang³, Yusheng Zhang⁴, Li Guo⁵, Yongjin Shi⁶, Changzheng Shi⁶, Li Huang⁶, and Hao Xu^6
1medical imaging center, the first affiliated hospital of Jinan university, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China, ²GE healthcare, China, Guangdong, China,³neurology, the first affiliated hospital of Jinan university, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China, ⁴neurology, the first affiliated hospital of Jinan university, Guangdong, China, ⁵the first affiliated hospital of Jinan university, Guangdong, China, ⁶medical imaging center, the first affiliated hospital of Jinan university, Guangdong, China

In biologic tissues, water molecules motion mainly includes perfusion in the capillary network, diffusion in the extracellular space, and the permeation in the membrane by aquaporins. A triexponetial model based on multiple b-value diffusion weighted imaging (mbDWI) has theoretical advantages over currently available water diffusion measurements. Because it is intrinsically quantitative, and is mainly dependent on three components hypothesis, i.e. capillary flow (fast component), pure water diffusion (intermediate component) and high b-value related diffusion (slow component probably by aquaporins in the membrane).

Adriane Gröger^1,2, Rupert Kolb², and Uwe Klose^2
1Department of Neurology and Neuroimaging Center (NIC), Mainz, Germany, ²Department of Diagnostic and Interventional Neuroradiology, Magnetic Resonance Research Group, Tübingen, Germany

Progressive degeneration of dopamine-producing neurons within the substantia nigra pars compacta in Parkinson's disease may be caused by mitochondrial dysfunction and oxidative stress which can also explain our MRSI findings of reduced NAA, creatine, glutathione and dopamine as well as elevated taurine, GABA and glutamate in the region of the substantia nigra.

Harpreet Hyare¹, Enrico De Vita², Marie-Claire Porter¹, Ivor Simpson¹, Ged Ridgway¹, Simon Mead¹, Peter Rudge¹, John Collinge¹, Sebastien Ourselin³, and John Thornton^2
1Department of Neurodegenerative Diseases, UCL Institute of Neurology, London, United Kingdom, ²Lysholm Department of Neuroradiology, National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, London, United Kingdom, ³Centre for Medical Image Computing (CMIC), University College London, London, United Kingdom

As we enter the era of therapeutic trials in human prion diseases, identification of imaging secondary endpoints is paramount. We present the largest comprehensive cross-sectional and longitudinal findings of microstructural changes in a heterogenous group of patients with human prion disease and argue that radial diffusivity in the putamen is an independent predictor of disease severity and a potential secondary endpoint in future clinical trials in this disease.

Francesca Caso¹, Federica Agosta¹, Iva Stankovic², Alberto Inuggi¹, Igor Petrovic², Marina Svetel², Vladimir S Kostic², and Massimo Filippi^1
1Neuroimaging Research Unit, Institute of Experimental Neurology, San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, Milan, MI, Italy,²Clinic of Neurology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Belgrade, Belgrade, BG, Yugoslavia

Cortico-striatal-thalamic functional connectivity (FC) was assessed in chronically treated (t-PD) and drug-naïve (n-PD) hemiparkinsonian patients.. N-PD patients experienced an increased basal ganglia reciprocal connectivity while the affected caudate nucleus and thalamus were hypoconnected with the ispilateral fronto-insular cortices. The enhanced subcortical FC was “normalized”, or inverted into hypoconnectivity, in t-PD patients, who also exhibited an increased FC of the striatal and thalamic regions with the sensorimotor and association posterior cortices. FC changes occur in early hemiparkinsonian patients, antecede the onset of motor symptoms on the opposite body side, and are modulated by levodopa possibly through an increased thalamic outflow.

Enrico De Vita^1,2, Luke Massey³, John S Thornton^1,2, Mark J White^1,2, Christopher Sinclair^1,2, Andrew J Lees³, Tarek Yousry^1,2, and Rolf H Jager^1,2
1Lysholm Department of Neuroradiology, National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, London, United Kingdom, ²Academic Neuroradiological Unit, Department of Brain Repair and Rehabilitation, UCL Institute of Neurology, London, United Kingdom, ³Sara Koe PSP Research Centre and Reta Lila Weston Institute of Neurological Studies, Department of Molecular Neurosciences, UCL Institute of Neurology, London, United Kingdom

Test

Nils Daniel Forkert¹, Jan Sedlacik², and Kai Boelmans^3
1Department of Radiology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, United States, ²Department of Diagnostic and Interventional Neuroradiology, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Germany, ³Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Germany

The differentiation of the progressive nuclear palsy (PSP) from the idiopathic Parkinsonian syndrome (IPS) based on clinical criteria is often difficult and high failure rates have been reported. This work presents a fully automatic method for the automatic differentiation of these two neurological diseases using an atlas-based analysis of high-resolution T1-weighted datasets for regional brain volume determination and subsequent classification using a support vector machine. A first evaluation based on 78 datasets revealed that the proposed method is capable of differentiating IPS (n=57) and PSP patients (n=21) fully automatically in less than 10 minutes and an accuracy of 87.2%.

Silvina G. Horovitz¹, Peter Lauro¹, Andrew Van^1,2, Pascal Sati³, Steve Li⁴, Pritha Ghosh¹, Nora Vanegas-Arroyave¹, Codrin I Lungu⁵, and Mark Hallett^1
1Human Motor Control Section, NINDS - NIH, Bethesda, MD, United States, ²Texas A&M University, Texas, United States, ³Neuroinmunology Branch, NINDS - NIH, Bethesda, MD, United States, ⁴MRS Core, NIMH, Bethesda, Maryland, United States, ⁵NIH Parkinson Clinic, NINDS - NIH, Bethesda, MD, United States

Parkinson disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disorder. Post-mortem studies suggest mitochondrial dysfunction in PD. We assessed mitochondrial function in vivo using phosphorus chemical shift imaging (31P-CSI) at 7T in a cohort of PD, Parkinsonian syndromes and healthy controls. Processing was performed using JMRIU, matlab and AFNI. Mitochondrial function was evaluated by phosphocreatine concentrations and compared to markers of membrane integrity in several brain areas affected by the disorder. High energy phosphates in most affected side of patients' substantia nigra showed significant decrease when compared to the less affected side and to healthy controls.

Leon C. Ho^1,2, Ian P. Conner³, Seong-Gi Kim^1,4, Ed X. Wu², Gadi Wollstein³, Joel S. Schuman³, and Kevin C. Chan^1,3
1Neuroimaging Laboratory, Department of Radiology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States, ²Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong, China, ³Department of Ophthalmology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States, ⁴Center for Neuroscience Imaging Research, Institute for Basic Science (IBS), Dept. of Biological Sci, SKKU, Suwon, Korea

This study determined spatiotemporally the progression of microstructural disorganization in acute and chronic optic neuropathies of different severity using diffusion tensor MRI so as to better understand the mechanisms of pathological processes such as glutamate excitotoxicity, and in neurodegenerative diseases such as ocular hypertension and glaucoma. Our data suggested anterograde degeneration along the visual pathway upon acute glutamate excitotoxic retinal injury with varying rates of λ// and λ┴ changes along time. In addition, mild, early distal axonopathy might be detected in vivo along the visual pathway upon chronic ocular hypertension.

Mark David Meadowcroft^1,2, Douglas G Peters¹, Carson Purnell², Fatima Ali-Rahmani¹, Qing X Yang^1,2, and James R Connor^1
1Neurosurgery, The Pennsylvania State University - College of Medicine, Hershey, PA, United States, ²Radiology, The Pennsylvania State University - College of Medicine, Hershey, PA, United States

High Iron (HFE) H63D and C282Y polymorphisms are found with increased prevalence in numerous neurodegenerative diseases. A mouse model has been generated that has a knock-in of the mouse homolog (H67D) for the human HFE gene. This mouse model has been shown to have alterations in brain iron homeostasis and promotes an environment of oxidative stress. The goal of this study is to longitudinally track the H67D mouse brain changes with non-invasive imaging parametric imaging. The results show that the H67D mice have alterations in transverse relaxation indicative of high iron loading and changes in volumetric congruent with neuronal atrophy.

Koji Kamagata¹, Masaaki Hori¹, Kohei Kamiya¹, Michimasa Suzuki¹, Akira Nishikori², Mariko Yoshida¹, Fumitaka Kumagai², Taku Hatano³, Hiroyuki Tomiyama³, Nobutaka Hattori³, and Shigeki Aoki^1
1Department of Radiology, Juntendo University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Bunkyo-ku, Japan, ²Department of Radiological Sciences, Tokyo Metropolitan University, Tokyo, Japan, ³Department of Neurology, Juntendo University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Bunkyo-ku, Japan

We preliminarily investigated the efficacy of analyzing histograms of diffusional kurtosis imaging metrics to diagnose Parkinson disease (PD) in vivo. The mean and median values of FA and MK in the substantia nigra pars compacta (SNpc) were significantly lower in PD patients than in healthy controls (Mann–Whitney U test with Bonferroni correction). The median MK in the SNpc showed the best diagnostic performance (mean cutoff, 0.910; sensitivity, 0.93; specificity, 0.83). Our results demonstrate that histogram analysis of MK measurements can be a useful tool to diagnose PD in vivo.

Rodolfo Gatto¹, Weiguo Li², Ehsan Tavassoli¹, Andrea Buenaventura¹, William Hendrickson³, Gerardo Morfini¹, and Richard Magin^2
1Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, United States, ²Department of Bioengineering, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, United States, ³Research Resource Center, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, United States

Amyotrophic lateral Sclerosis (ALS) is characterized by progressive degeneration and eventual death of motor neurons in the spinal cord. Among several mutant SOD1 mouse models generated, G93A-SOD1 represent the best-characterized one. The remarkable correspondence in clinical phenotype observed between G93A-SOD1 mice and human ALS made this model a benchmark for pre-clinical screening of ALS therapies. As a step towards this end, we performed correlative diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and histological studies in white (WM) and grey (GM) matter of spinal cords obtained from pre-symptomatic G93A-SOD1 mice and wild-type (control, WT-SDO1) mice

James A Goodman¹, Mark R Austin², Andrea S Les², Zhiyong Xie¹, Yao Zhang³, and Claire Leurent^4
1Precision Medicine - Clinical and Translational Imaging, Pfizer Inc, Groton, CT, United States, ²IXICO plc, London, United Kingdom, ³PharmaTherapeutic Statistics, Pfizer Inc, Cambridge, MA, United States, ⁴Neuroscience Research Unit, Pfizer Inc, Cambridge, MA, United States

Cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA) is characterized by cerebrovascular amyloid deposition and has been shown to be associated with reduced cerbrovascular reactivity in transgenic animal models and in a cohort of human subjects. In this work we attempt to replicate previously-published findings in an independent cohort of CAA subjects and age-matched controls by performing a retrospective analysis of the ascending slope of the hemodynamic response to visual stimulus fMRI. Despite differing field strengths, acquisition protocols and analysis pipelines, a similar observation of significantly reduced cerebrovascular reactivity was observed, demonstrating the robust nature of this characteristic of CAA.

Heather Gray-Edwards¹, Nouha Salibi^2,3, Ashley Randle¹, Ronald Beyers⁴, Hai Lu⁵, Shumin Wang^4,5, Thomas Denney^4,5, Diane U Wilson¹, Judith Hudson⁶, Allison Bradbury¹, Victoria McCurdy¹, Ravi Seethamraju², Aime Johnson⁶, Nancy Cox¹, Miguel Sena-Esteves⁷, and Douglas Martin^1,8
1Scott-Ritchey Research Center, Auburn University, Auburn, AL, United States, ²Siemens Healthcare MR R&D, Malvern, PA, United States, ³AU MRI Center, Auburn University, AL, United States, ⁴AUMRI Center, Auburn University, AL, United States, ⁵Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Auburn University, AL, United States, ⁶Department of Clinical Sciences, Auburn University, AL, United States, ⁷Medical School, University of Massachusetts, MA, United States, ⁸Department of Anatomy, Physiology and Pharmacology, Auburn University, AL, United States

Sandhoff disease (SD) is a form of GM2 gangliosidosis in humans that is untreatable and fatal by 5 years of age. We performed intracranial AAV-mediated gene replacement in a feline model of SD, resulting in a >four-fold increase in lifespan and marked attenuation of neurologic signs. 7T MRI and MRS revealed partial normalization of brain architecture and metabolic changes, including reduction of a toxic metabolite, NAHex. Here we report, MRS detection of taurine in GM2 gangliosidosis, which may represent taurine-conjugated GM2, a novel mechanism for export of water insoluble GM2.

Rachelle Crescenzi^1,2, Catherine DeBrosse^1,2, Ravi Prakash Reddy Nanga², Kevin D'Aquilla², Hari Hariharan², Ari Borthakur², Virginia M.-Y. Lee³, and Ravinder Reddy^2
1Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, United States, ²Center for Magnetic Resonance and Optical Imaging (CMROI), University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, United States, ³Center for Neurodegenerative Disease Research (CNDR), University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, United States

Glutamate is a wide-spread excitatory neurotransmitter, and has been shown by magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) to decrease in the hippocampus of Alzheimer’s disease patients. Here we have studied this quickly progressing mouse model longitudinally, using GluCEST and 1H MRS to measure the effects of progressive tau pathology on glutamate levels. Glutamate increases during neuronal development of adolescent mice, and decreases in the thalamus/hypo-thalamus with the progression of tau pathology. In two cases, extremely low GluCEST values predicated early disease onset.

Hanbing Lu¹, Dong Liu², Joshua Banks¹, Elliot A. Stein¹, Mark P Mattson², and Yihong Yang^1
1Neuroimaging Research Branch, National Insitute on Drug Abuse, NIH, Baltimore, Maryland, United States, ²Laboratory of Neurosciences, National Institute on Aging, NIH, Baltimore, Maryland, United States

Human neuroimaging studies suggest that brain regions associated with AƒÀ deposition and cortical atrophy in AD patients overlap remarkably well with the so-called default mode network (DMN), indicating that compromise in spontaneous activity within the DMN may serve as a biomarker for diagnosis and for monitoring the progression of AD. The triple-transgenic mouse model of AD (3�~TgAD) shares amyloid and tau pathologies, and cognitive deficits similar to human AD patients, and has been valuable in studying the pathophysiology and progression of AD. In the present study, we aimed to identify the mouse DMN and to investigate its potential dysregulation in a 3�~TgAD mouse model.

Ashish Raj¹ and Eve LoCastro^2
1Radiology and Neuroscience, Weill Cornell Medical College, New Nork, NY, United States, ²Radiology, Weill Cornell Medical College, New York, NY, United States

Atrophy progression in Alzheimer’s Disease is highly stereotyped, starting from medial temporal origins, to adjoining temporal and parietal cortices, and finally to frontal cortex. The purpose of this study is to quantitatively compare 3 popular models of spread: exponential, sigmoid and network-diffusion, by applying them to MRI-derived volumetric data from the public ADNI database. We test how well these models capture the relationship between baseline and rate of change of atrophy. We find that the network-diffusion model’s slope prediction matched measured atrophy slope more accurately than competing models.

Marco Aiello¹, Carlo Cavaliere¹, Ilaria Boscolo Galeazzo², Elena Salvatore³, Francesca B. Pizzini⁴, Alberto Beltramello⁴, and Emanuele Nicolai^1
1IRCCS fondazione SDN, Naples, Italy, ²University of Verona, Italy, ³Università di Napoli Federico II, Italy, ⁴General Hospital, Verona, Italy

Xiaojing Long¹, Weiqi Liao¹, Chunxiang Jiang¹, Dai Shan¹, Yanjun Diao¹, and Lijuan Zhang*^1
1Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen, Guangdong, China

Previous studies have demonstrated volume shrinkage of subcortical nuclei in the brain of mild cognitive impairment (MCI). However, the evolution of the volumetric changes remains to be defined. In this study, we aimed to investigate the atrophy trajectory of subcortical structures from longitudinal data.

Bader Chaarani¹, Cyrille Capel², Jadwiga Zmudka³, Joel Daouk¹, Anthony Fichten², Catherine Gondry-Jouet⁴, Roger Bouzerar¹, and Olivier Balédent^1
1Department of Imaging, Amiens University Hospital, Amiens, Somme, France, ²Department of Neurosurgery, Amiens University Hospital, Amiens, Somme, France, ³Department of Geriatrics, Amiens University Hospital, Amiens, Somme, France, ⁴Department of Radiology, Amiens University Hospital, Amiens, Somme, France

This work studies the alteration of cerebral cerebrospinalfluid (CSF) and brain matter repartition in neurodegenerative diseases, compared to control using 2D index ratios. Compartments in question are: intra and extraventricular CSF, grey matter and white matter, with consideration of transependymal CSF resorption.

Laura Serra¹, Massimo Musicco², Mara Cercignani³, Mario Torso¹, Barbara Spanò¹, Roberta Perri², Lucia Fadda², Carlo Caltagirone², and Marco Bozzali^1
1Neuroimaging Laboratory, Santa Lucia Foundation, Rome, Italy, ²Santa Lucia Foundation, Rome, Italy, ³University of Sussex, Brighton, United Kingdom

Cognitive reserve (CR) in Alzheimer Disease (AD) accounts for differences among individuals in their ability to cope with cognitive decline. By using a questionnaire to assess CR and visual rating scales to assess gray matter atrophy and white matter abnormalities, we show an interaction between different levels of CR, severity of white matter lesions (but not severity of temporal lobe atrophy) with the relative risk of conversion to AD, in patients with amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment. A specific interaction between CR, WM lesions and GM atrophy allows a quantification of the conversion time from a-MCI to AD.

Ashish Raj¹ and Eve LoCastro^2
1Radiology and Neuroscience, Weill Cornell Medical College, New Nork, NY, United States, ²Radiology, Weill Cornell Medical College, New York, NY, United States

Recent studies on prion-like trans-neuronal proteopathy of Alzheimer's disease were captured by a mathematical network-diffusion model enacted on fiber connectivity network of the brain. Here we apply this model to predict future atrophy patterns of demented individuals using baseline MRI. These results could lead to potential breakthroughs in diagnostic, prognostic, and clinical trial assessment in AD, apart from its clear value in understanding the pathophysiology of disease.

Jianli Wang¹, Zhiqun Wang², Han Zhang³, Robert Mchugh¹, Xiaoyu Sun¹, Kuncheng Li², and Qing X. Yang^1,4
1Radiology, Penn State College of Medicine, Hershey, PA, United States, ²Radiology, Xuanwu Hospital of Capital Medical University, Beijing, China,³Center for Cognition and Brain Disorders, Hangzhou Normal University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China, ⁴Neurosurgery, Penn State College of Medicine, Hershey, PA, United States

Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients perform poorly on tasks that require interhemispheric communication, which suggests a deficit in the interhemispheric integration of information. To investigate the relationship between the interhemisphere functional deficits and degeneration of the white matter connections in the AD, we quantitatively measured interhemispheric functional connectivity using resting-state fMRI and voxel-mirrored homotopic connectivity method, together with the brain diffusion parameters with diffusion tensor imaging in the AD and mild cognitive impairment patients and compared with those in the cognitive normal healthy controls.

Timothy Shepherd¹, Bang-Bin Chen², Kent Friedman¹, Christopher Glielmi³, Thomas Koesters¹, Kimberly Jackson¹, Yu-Shin Ding¹, David Faul³, and Fernando Boada^1
1Bernard and Irene Schwartz Center for Biomedical Imaging, Department of Radiology, New York University School of Medicine, New York, NY, United States, ²Department of Medical Imaging, National Taiwan University Hospital, Taiwan, ³Siemens Healthcare, New York, NY, United States

Research indicates combining PET and MRI biomarkers of Alzheimer's disease will provide better stratification of patients with suspected dementia for clinical diagnosis and monitoring of experimental therapies. Integrated PET-MRI is ideally positioned to provide this information simultaneously, but PET-MRI radiotracer quantification is not trivial and its accuracy not established. We report direct comparison of MRI- to CT-based attenuation correction methods in the same patients with suspected dementia.

Alexis Roche^1,2, Daniel Schmitter^1,3, Bénédicte Maréchal¹, Delphine Ribes¹, Ahmed Abdulkadir⁴, Meritxell Bach-Cuadra^2,5, Alessandro Daducci⁵, Cristina Granziera^1,6, Stefan Klöppel⁴, Philippe Maeder², Reto Meuli², and Gunnar Krueger^1
1Advanced Clinical Imaging Technology, Siemens Healthcare IM BM PI, Lausanne, Switzerland, ²Department of Radiology, University Hospital (CHUV), Lausanne, Switzerland, ³Biomedical Imaging Group, EPFL, Lausanne, Switzerland, ⁴Group of Pattern Recognition and Image Processing, University of Freiburg, Germany, ⁵Signal Processing Laboratory 5, EPFL, Lausanne, Switzerland, ⁶Service of Neurology, University Hospital (CHUV), Lausanne, Switzerland

This study compares different MR T1-based brain morphometry methods for automated classification of Alzheimer patients, mild cognitively impaired patients and elderly controls on a standardized analysis set of 818 scans from the ADNI NIH-funded project. The methods under investigation are standard voxel-based morphometry, as implemented by the SPM software, and volume-based morphometry as implemented in respectively different ways by FreeSurfer and Siemens prototype MorphoBox. Our results show that classification using volume-based morphometry is at least as accurate as voxel-based morphometry, therefore proving volume-based morphometry to be a valuable methodology to assist the diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease and mild cognitive impairment.

Sung-han Lin¹, Wen-Chiun Hsu^2,3, Yao-Liang Chen⁴, and Jiun-Jie Wang^5,6
1Graduate Institute of Clinical Medicine, Chang Gung University, Taoyuan County, Taiwan, ²Department of Neurology, ChangGung Memorial Hospital, Linkou, Taoyuan County, Taiwan, ³Dementia Center, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Linkou, Taoyuan County, Taiwan, ⁴Department of Medical Imaging and Intervention, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Linkou, Taoyuan County, Taiwan, ⁵Department of Medical Imaging and Radiological Sciences, Chang Gung University, Taoyuan County, Taiwan, ⁶Neuroscience Research Center, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Linkou, Taoyuan County, Taiwan

The changes of mean diffusivity in cortical gray matter were compared among 121 participants, divided into three groups: healthy, mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer’s disease. The percentage changes in frontal and temporal lobes between Alzheimer’s disease and healthy is approximately equal to that in Alzheimer’s disease with mild cognitive impairment and mild cognitive impairment with healthy. The involved regions of Alzheimer’s disease are overlapped with that by mild cognitive impairment and normal. Combining the changes and involved regions of mean diffusivity, it could be suggested that mild cognitive impairment is a transition stage between healthy and Alzheimer’s disease.

Peipeng Liang^1,2, Zhiqun Wang¹, Tianyi Qian³, Jie Lu^1,2, and Kuncheng Li^1,2
1Dept. of Radiology, Xuanwu Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, Beijing, China, ²Beijing Key Laboratory of Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Brain Informatics, Beijing, China, ³Siemens Healthcare, MR Collaborations NE Asia, Beijing, China

The acupuncture stimulation on the acupoints of Liv3 and LI4 was found to modulate the DMN activity in AD patients.

Nicholas G Dowell¹, Simon L Evans², Paul S Tofts¹, Sarah L King², Naji Tabet³, and Jennifer M Rusted^2
1Clinical Imaging Sciences Centre, Brighton and Sussex Medical School, Falmer, Brighton and Hove, United Kingdom, ²Psychology, University of Sussex, Falmer, Brighton and Hove, United Kingdom, ³Postgraduate Medicine, Brighton and Sussex Medical School, Falmer, Brighton and Hove, United Kingdom

The presence of the APOE-e4 gene represents a significantly higher risk factor for developing Alzheimer's Disease. We scanned 80 healthy volunteers across two age-groups(young group: 20 with the e4 gene and 21 without, mid age group 17 with APOE-e4, 22 without). Our study identified local regional volume change in brain areas that positively correlated with fMRI activation between our two genetic groups. Brains areas identified were parahippocampus, cuneus, occipital and inferior parietal.

Ludovico Minati^1,2, Dennis Chan¹, Chiara Mastropasqua^3,4, Laura Serra³, Barbara Spano'³, Camillo Marra⁵, Carlo Caltagirone^6,7, Mara Cercignani¹, and Marco Bozzali^3
1CISC, Brighton and Sussex Medical School, Falmer, East Sussex, United Kingdom, ²Scientific Department, Neurological Institute "Carlo Besta", Milan, Italy, ³Neuroimaging Laboratory, IRCCS Santa Lucia, Rome, Italy, ⁴Neuroscience Department, University of Trieste, Trieste, Italy, ⁵Institute of Neurology, Università Cattolica, Rome, Italy, ⁶Clinical and Behavioural Neurology, IRCCS Santa Lucia, Rome, Italy, ⁷Department of Neuroscience, University of Rome “Tor Vergata”, Rome, Italy

This paper investigates changes in functional network architecture in amnestic mild cognitive impairment using graph-based analysis of task-free fMRI and fine cortical parcellation. Widespread disconnection was observed primarily in cortical hubs known to manifest early Alzheimer pathology. The connectivity changes determined using graph-based analysis significantly exceed those detected using independent component analysis both in amplitude and topographical extent, and are largely decoupled from the presence of overt atrophy. This superior ability of graph-based analysis to detect disease-related disconnection highlights its potential use in the determination of biomarkers of early dementia.

Christiane Möller¹, Nikki Dieleman², Wiesje van der Flier^1,3, Adriaan Versteeg⁴, Yolande Pijnenburg¹, Philip Scheltens¹, Frederik Barkhof⁴, and Hugo Vrenken^4,5
1Neurology / Alzheimercenter, Neuroscience Campus Amsterdam, VU University Medical center, Amsterdam, Noord-Holland, Netherlands, ²Radiology, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht, Utrecht, Netherlands, ³Epidemiology & Biostatistics, Neuroscience Campus Amsterdam, VU University Medical center, Amsterdam, Noord-Holland, Netherlands, ⁴Radiology & Nuclear Medicine, Neuroscience Campus Amsterdam, VU University Medical center, Amsterdam, Noord-Holland, Netherlands, ⁵Physics & Medical Technology, Neuroscience Campus Amsterdam, VU University Medical center, Amsterdam, Noord-Holland, Netherlands

There is no reliable imaging marker for the differentiation between Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) and behavioral variant Frontotemporal Dementia (bvFTD). Involvement of fronto-striatal circuits in bvFTD suggests that basal nuclei may help in distinguishing these two types of dementia. Investigation of 7 subcortical structures with the FIRST algorithm in patients with AD, bvFTD and controls revealed that hippocampal and amygdala volume were reduced in both types of dementia to a similar extent. However, volumes of caudate nucleus, nucleus accumbens and globus pallidus were smaller in bvFTD than in AD, providing evidence for a potential marker for the discrimination between bvFTD and AD.

Federica Agosta¹, Elisa Canu¹, Sebastiano Galantucci¹, Alessandro Meani¹, Giuseppe Magnani², Alessandra Marcone³, Andrea Falini⁴, Giancarlo Comi², and Massimo Filippi^1
1Neuroimaging Research Unit, Institute of Experimental Neurology, San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, Milan, MI, Italy,²Department of Neurology, San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, Milan, MI, Italy, ³Department of Clinical Neurosciences, San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, Milan, MI, Italy, ⁴Department of Neuroradiology, San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, Milan, MI, Italy

Our study showed that global functional network organization is spared in the aMCI patients, except for the higher hierarchy likely reflecting a high sub-modular decomposition of the functional networks. On the contrary, local functional network organization is altered in aMCI patients in critical regions known to be hit by Alzheimer's disease. The graph analysis approach is promising for understanding the pathophysiology of the functional impairment of aMCI patients and convertion to dementia. Longitudinal studies are needed to further investigate the clinical meaning of the presenting data.

Katherine A Koenig¹ and Pallab Bhattacharyya^1
1Imaging Sciences, The Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH, United States

The current work investigates the relationship between neuroanatomical and proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1H-MRS) and measures of cognitive functioning and dementia in individuals with DS. 15 adults with Down Syndrome underwent 1H-MRS scanning at the left dorsal lateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC). DLPFC choline was related to both measures of cognition and dementia. Cortical and subcortical grey matter volumes were related to age, and white matter and ventricular volumes were related to dementia measures. These results highlight the need for longitudinal studies of this population, to clarify the relationship between imaging measures, baseline cognitive ability, and dementia.

Elena Makovac¹, Barbara Spanò¹, Laura Serra¹, Giovanni Giulietti¹, Mario Torso¹, Mara Cercignani^1,2, Carlo Caltagirone^3,4, and Marco Bozzali^1
1Neuroimaging Laboratory, IRCCS Santa Lucia Foundation, Rome, Italy, ²Clinical Imaging Sciences Centre, Brighton and Sussex Medical School, United Kingdom, ³Department of Neuroscience, University of Rome ‘Tor Vergata’, Rome, Italy, ⁴Department of Clinical and Behavioural Neurology, IRCCS Santa Lucia Foundation, Rome, Italy

Two main clinical subtypes of amnestic MCI has been described, single-domain and multiple-domain aMCI In the present study we examined the Corpus Callosum (CC) by applying DTI-based tractography in SDamci and MDamci. Using a vixel-based approach, we were able to delineate a precise direction of WM damage inside the CC, starting from the Splenium in SDamci and proceeding toward the Genu in the MDamci, and eventually declining in a general CC WM damage in the final AD stage. These findings clarify some relevant aspects of AD pathophysiology and provide information of potential prognostic value for disease monitoring.

Paolo Vitali^1,2, Fulvia Palesi^3,4, Gloria Castellazzi^4,5, Carol Di Perri², Stefano Bastianello^2,6, Elena Sinforiani⁷, and Egidio D'Angelo^4,8
1Brain MRI 3T Mondino Research Center, C. Mondino National Neurological Institute, Pavia, PV, Italy, ²Department of Brain and Behavioural Sciences, University of Pavia, Pavia, PV, Italy, ³Department of Physics, University of Pavia, PV, Italy, ⁴Brain Connectivity Center, National Neurological Institute C. Mondino, Pavia, PV, Italy, ⁵Department of Industrial and Information Engineering, University of Pavia, Pavia, PV, Italy, ⁶Neuroradiology, National Neurological Institute C. Mondino, Pavia, PV, Italy, ⁷Neurology, National Neurological Institute C. Mondino, Pavia, PV, Italy, ⁸Department of Brain and Behavioural Sciences, University of Pavia, Pavia, PV, Italy, University of Pavia, Pavia, PV, Italy

The aim of this study was to test whether thalamic, other than hippocampal, degeneration is significant in early phases of Alzheimer's disease, and if it can also drive PC/PCC dysconnection and early cognitive deficits.In this study, both voxel-wise and VOI analysis demonstrated in AD and MCI a significant diffuse macrostructural (atrophy) and microstructural (^MD) degeneration of hippocampi and hippocampal-PC/PCC tracts, but only focal mild degeneration of thalami and thalamic-PC/PCC tracts. However, the most significant neuropsychological correlation in AD and was found for the right thalamic-PC/PCC tract, and degeneration of left PC/PCC correlated with atrophy of the thalamic-PC/PCC tract. As a whole, these results suggest that, although hippocampi and hippocampal-PC/PCC tracts are more significantly degenerated, focal thalamic degeneration could also drive PC/PCC disconnection and cognitive deficits in early phases of Alzheimer's disease.

Sanneke van Rooden¹, Naomi Smulders¹, Maarten J. Versluis¹, Annemarieke M. van Opstal¹, Andrew G. Webb¹, Mark A. van Buchem¹, and Jeroen van der Grond^1
1Radiology, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands

Recent findings suggested that the level of iron accumulation, which may reflect AD pathology and more specifically amyloid deposition, is reflected by phase information on T2*-weighted MRI at 7T. The aim of this study was to translate the imaging methods from 7T to 3T MRI to investigate whether these differences could be detected using T2*-weighted 3T MRI data. Our 3T MRI data show no phase differences between AD patients and controls as opposed to our previous 7T MRI data which showed an increased cortical phase shifts in AD patients, and an association with cognitive performance.

Yu-Sheng Tseng¹, Teng-Yi Huang¹, and Yi-Jui Liu^2
1National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, Taipei, Taiwan, ²Feng Chia University, Taichung, Taiwan

The study of Grecius et al. indicated that default mode network (DMN) is closely involved with memory processing and resting-state activity in the posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) and hippocampus decreases in the AD group. However, in their study, the hippocampal coactivation in DMN was almost absent when the GE-EPI images were acquired using a 3.0 T MRI scanner. Grecius et al. suggested that the signal loss of hippocampus is most likely due to susceptibility artifacts at 3.0 T1. We assume that optimization of slice orientation reduces signal loss of the human hippocampus area and improves measurements of functional connectivity of DMN. In this study, we investigate the signal intensities of GE-EPI images and functional connectivity of DMN using three conventional slice orientations.

Pablo Garcia-Polo^1,2, Virginia Mato^1,3, Gonzalo Pajares^2,4, Daniel Garcia-Frank⁵, Norberto Malpica¹, Ana Ramos⁶, Juan Alvarez-Linera⁷, Eva Carro⁸, and Juan Antonio Hernandez-Tamames^2,3
1LAIMBIO-DTE, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Mostoles, Madrid, Spain, ²Center for Biomedical Technology U.P.M., Pozuelo de Alarcon, Madrid, Spain,³Center for Alzheimer's Disease Queen Sofia Foundation CIEN Foundation, Madrid, Madrid, Spain, ⁴Center for Alzheimer's Disease Queen Sofia Foundation CIEN Foundation, Madrid, Spain, ⁵IdiPAZ, Madrid, Spain, ⁶Radiología, Hospital 12 de Octubre, Madrid, Spain, ⁷Hospital Ruber Internacional, Madrid, Spain, ⁸Neurology-Neurophysiology, Hospital 12 de Octubre, Madrid, Spain

This work analyses structural and functional changes in the choroid plexus (CP) in a healthy population (25 subjects, PAD group) in risk of developing Alzheimer's disease (AD) (left and right hippocampus
 

Silun Wang¹, Jeromy Dooyema², Xiaodong Zhang¹, Lary C. Walker^2,3, and Eric Heuer^2,4
1Yerkes Imaging Center, Yerkes National Primate Research Center, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, United States, ²Yerkes National Primate Research Center, Emory University, GA, United States, ³Department of Neurology, Emory University, GA, United States, ⁴University of Hawaii at Hilo, HI, United States

We analyzed the histopathologic correlates of age-associated vasculopathy in a unique nonhuman primate model of cerebral β-amyloid angiopathy using multiparametric MRI. Regions indicative of possible past microbleeds were detected as hypointense regions via SWI, and low ADC values were confirmed histologically to contain abundant hemosiderin, β-amyloid deposition, microgliosis and astrogliosis, but no demyelination. Our results support the use of SWI and DTI as potential imaging modalities to characterize cerebral vasculopathy and associated degenerative changes in the senescent brain.

Jason Bini^1,2, Mootaz Eldib¹, Philip M Robson¹, and Zahi A Fayad^1
1Translational and Molecular Imaging Institute, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, New York, United States, ²Department of Biomedical Engineering, The City College of New York, New York, New York, United States

Simultaneous MR/PET scanners allow for the exploration of novel partial volume effect correction techniques. We report here the first attempt to apply these methods to simultaneous MR/PET imaging of the carotid arteries. The current study shows a comparison of the effects on quantitative PET of a wavelet-based partial volume effect correction technique for use in carotid MR/PET protocols. The wavelet-based technique is designed to compensate for partial volume artifacts such as tissue fraction effects. The technique applied here demonstrated an improvement in both resolution and quantification in the phantom and the in the carotid arteries of the patient.

Jason Bini^1,2, Philip M Robson¹, Claudia Calcagno¹, Mootaz Eldib¹, and Zahi A Fayad^1
1Translational and Molecular Imaging Institute, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, New York, United States, ²Department of Biomedical Engineering, The City College of New York, New York, New York, United States

18F-Fluorodeoxyglocuse (FDG) positron emission tomography (PET) has shown promise in quantifying metabolic activity of inflammation in atherosclerotic plaques in patients. In this study, we examine the quantitative differences between our carotid artery imaging protocol on a PET/CT and an MR/PET scanner, controlling for circulation time. Large differences between PET/CT and MR/PET were observed. When reconstructing the same PET data with MR- and CT-based attenuation maps in the MR/PET reconstruction we see a high quantitative correlation between reconstructed PET images. This study supports the use of MR/PET for quantitative measure of metabolic activity in the carotid arteries.

TETSURO SEKINE¹, Yasuo Amano¹, Ryo Takagi¹, Yasuo Murai², and Shinichiro Kumita^1
1Radiology, Nippon Medical School, Tokyo, Japan, ²Neurosurgery, Nippon Medical School, Tokyo, Japan

Ophthalmic artery (OphA) with retrograde flow is one of the collateral flows in the patients with internal carotid artery occlusion. 4D Flow MRI was able to assess the flow direction of OphA, which is related to decrease in cerebral vascular reactivity measured by SPECT.

Florence Colliez¹, Julie Magat¹, Marta M Safronova², Bénédicte F Jordan¹, Bernard Gallez¹, and Thierry Duprez^3
1Louvain Drug Research Institute, Biomedical Magnetic Resonance Research Group, University of Louvain, Brussels, Belgium, ²Service de Radiologie, Cliniques universitaires Saint-Luc, Brussels, Belgium, ³Department of Radiology and Medical Imaging, Cliniques universitaires Saint-Luc, Brussels, Belgium

Mapping brain oxygenation is a key-challenge in the clinical work-up of many cerebral disorders. Measurements of proton T1 relaxation induced by paramagnetic molecular oxygen have previously demonstrated capability to monitor changes in tissue oxygenation. The MOBILE (Mapping of Oxygen by Imaging Lipid relaxation Enhancement) sequence increases the sensitivity of this measurement by selectively calculating the spin-lattice (T1) relaxation of lipids after suppressing water signal. We hereby investigated in a translational “proof of concept” way whether MOBILE enabled detection of brain oxygen deprivation in the clinical setting of ischemic acute ischemic (72 hours) stroke patients.

Lora Talley Watts¹, Qiang Shen¹, and Timothy Duong^1
1Research Imaging Institute, University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX, United States

This study examined the expression of an early and late marker of the apoptotic cascade associated with perfusion and diffusion abnormality at 2 and 24 hours following a 60 minute MCAO in rats. Quantitative correlations of apoptotic expression were made with ADC and CBF measures. We found a strong correlation of ADC and CBF values with molecular markers of apoptosis and cell death. The finding provide molecular underpinnings of quantitative prediction of ischemic fate and functional reorganization based on acute MRI data.

Xiao Wang¹, Xiao-Hong Zhu¹, Afshin A Divani², and Wei Chen^1
1Center for Magnetic Resonance Research, Department of Radiology, University of Minnesota Medical School, Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States,²Neurology, University of Minnesota, Minnesota, United States

Resting-state fMRI (rs-fMRI) provides a noninvasive and unique way to study brain function organization and connectivity in both healthy subjects and diseased conditions. It is generally accepted that the spontaneous hemodynamic signal fluctuations mainly originate from the underlying neural activity, however, the loss of spontaneous BOLD coherence at the resting state may not exclusively result from the neuron origin due to the complicated nature of the BOLD signal. The effect of impaired cerebral vascular reactivity (CVR) on rs-fMRI BOLD coherence was investigated by performing CBF, CVR and rs-fMRI imaging on day 1 and day 7 post 1-hour occlusion in MCAO rat brain. It reveals that the BOLD time courses for those lesion regions with compromised CVR show flattened noise-like patterns with much weak synchronization strength, while the coherence partially resumes as the CVR recovers on day 7 after the occlusion. The overall results demonstrate that the hemodynamic response condition is important for the study of the brain function connectivity while baseline CBF might not be a good indicator of the state of cerebral vascular reactivity.

Vitaliy L Rayz¹, Michael T Lawton², Adib Abla², Van Halbach³, Gabriel Acevedo-Bolton¹, and David Saloner^1
1Radiology and Biomedical Imaging, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, United States, ²Neurosurgery, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, United States, ³Neurointerventional Radiology, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, United States

Computational models constructed from PC-MRI and MRA data can be used to predict flow fields resulting from vascular interventions. Interventional treatment of basilar aneurysms is particularly challenging since these lesions cannot be completely removed from the circulation without sacrificing flow to the vital pontine perforators. We report on image-based, patient-specific flow simulations in vascular geometries resulting from alternative virtual surgeries on fusiform and giant aneurysms of the basilar artery. The effect of the proposed flow revisions on patency of the pontine perforators is evaluated by simulating virtual contrast transport. This information, available a priori, may be helpful in clinical decision-making.

Chia-Lin Koh¹, Pei-Fang Tang², Hsiu-I Chen³, Ching-Lin Hsieh¹, and Wen-Yih Isaac Tseng^4,5
1School of Occupational Therapy, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan, ²School and Graduate Institute of Physical Therapy, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan, ³Department of Physical Therapy, Hung-Kuang University, Taichung, Taiwan, ⁴Center for Optoelectronic Biomedicine, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan, ⁵Graduate Institute of Brain and Mind Sciences, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan

The callosal motor fibers (CMF) were found to be degenerated in chronic stroke patients whose lesions involved corticospinal tract (CST) at the level below corpus callosum. Our study results supported that the degeneration of CMF was due to retrograde transsynaptic degeneration effect from CST degeneration. Furthermore, we found that the integrity of CMF contributes to upper extremity motor impairment severity in addition to CST integrity.

Xiao Wang¹, Xiao-Hong Zhu¹, Afshin A Divani², and Wei Chen^1
1Center for Magnetic Resonance Research, Department of Radiology, University of Minnesota Medical School, Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States,²Neurology, University of Minnesota, Minnesota, United States

Cerebral vascular reactivity (CVR) is an important physiologic property of assessing brain arteries response to vasoactive challenge and it is of great value of studying many cerebrovascular diseases, such as arterial stenosis, ischemic stroke and hypertension. CVR could be evaluated by positron emission tomography (PET), single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT), transcranail Doppler (TCD) ultrasonography as well as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) approaches, such as blood-oxygen-level dependent (BOLD) response, arterial spin labeling (ASL) based cerebral blood flow (CBF) calculation. In the present study, we demonstrate that the saturation-recover T1 (SR-T1) imaging method is sensitive and reliable to evaluate CVR by comparing it with the CASL based CBF method. Data show that the spatial pattern of CVR images generated with these two techniques is very similar in both normal and MCAO rat brain. Moreover, there is an excellent agreement of percentage CVR change imaged with these two techniques although their absolute scales are different. Therefore, the SR-T1 method provides a simple and reliable way of evaluating CVR in addition to measure parametric tissue property of T1/R1, CBF change and BOLD simultaneously.

Alexandre Krainik^1,2, Arnaud Attye¹, Naila Boudiaf³, Johan Pietras⁴, Thomas Perret², Irene Tropres³, Florence Tahon¹, and Olivier Detante^2,5
1Neuroradiology and MRI, University Hospital of Grenoble, Grenoble, France, ²U836 Grenoble Institute of Neurosciences, INSERM, Grenoble, France,³IRMaGe facility, University Joseph Fourier, France, ⁴IRMaGe facility, University Joseph Fourier, Grenoble, France, ⁵Neurology, University Hospital of Grenoble, Grenoble, France

Management of patients with Severe Intracranial Arterial Stenosis (SIAS) at risk of stroke events recurrence remains controversial. A better characterization of these patients might be helpful to define therapeutic strategy. BOLD fMRI to hypercapnic challenge has been proposed to identify impaired cerebrovascular reserve (CVR BOLD fMRI). We conducted a prospective study in 21 patients referred for a SIAS to estimate CVR BOLD fMRI, and compared their data a 100 volunteers’ dataset. Nine patients out of 21 had significantly impaired CVR. Thus, CVR BOLD fMRI could be helpful to better select patients with SIAS for more invasive treatment.

Amy Kuceyeski¹, Mark Villanueva², Ashish Raj¹, Michael O'Dell², and Joan Toglia^3
1Radiology, Weill Cornell Medical College, New York, NY, United States, ²Rehabilitation Medicine, Weill Cornell Medical College, New York, NY, United States, ³Occupational Therapy, Mercy College, NY, United States

The Network Modification (NeMo) Tool quantifies losses in the brain connectivity network by mapping areas of damage onto a large collection of healthy tractograms. This allows for a clinically feasible method for identifying areas that are most affected by loss of connectivity due to stroke, which can provide insight as to type and severity of functional loss. Here we hypothesized the NeMo Tool’s measure of connectivity disruption could better predict stroke severity, measured with NIHSS, than lesion volume. Our partial least squares regression model predicted NIHSS from baseline disconnection with accuracy of R²=0.75, while correlation with lesion volume was R²=0.28.

Alex Förster¹, Holger Wenz¹, Hans Ulrich Kerl¹, and Christoph Groden^1
1Neuroradiology, Universitätsmedizin Mannheim, Mannheim, Baden-Württemberg, Germany

Assessment of collateral flow in posterior circulation stroke (PCS) by MRI techniques has not been studied systematically. We aimed to investigate collateral flow in 38 PCS patients with two different approaches: presence of FLAIR vascular hyperintensities (FVH) and dynamic 4D angiograms generated from perfusion-weighted raw images. Collateral flow as represented by FVH was present in 30 (78.9%) patients with PCS. Collateralization grade on dynamic 4D angiograms was 0 in 1 (3.3%), 1 in 9 (23.7%), 3 in 18 (47.4%), and 4 in 10 (26.3%) patients. Collateralization in PCS can be assessed in detail by different static and dynamic MRI techniques.

Jingwei Zhang^1,2, Thanh D. Nguyen², Tian Liu³, Shixin Chang⁴, Ilhami Kovanlikaya², and Yi Wang^1,2
1Department of Biomedical Engineering, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, United States, ²Department of Radiology, Weill Cornell Medical College, New York, NY, United States, ³MedImageMetric LLC, New York, NY, United States, ⁴Yueyang Hospital of Integrated Traditional Chinese & Western Medicine, Shanghai, China

The purpose of this study was to design an in vitro hematoma model and to apply quantitative MR methods to study its T1, T2 and magnetic susceptibility changes as hematoma evolves.

Carson Ingo¹, Yu Fen Chen², and Todd B. Parrish^2
1C. J. Gorter Center for High Field MRI, Department of Radiology, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, Netherlands, ²Department of Radiology, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL, United States

In this study, we make use of anomalous diffusion measures in chronic stroke patients to better characterize tissue complexity in the left hemisphere, local to the necrotic regions, which often results in language deficits. To our knowledge, this is the first report to demonstrate application of the Continuous Time Random Walk (CTRW) theory and Entropy to model in vivo anomalous diffusion measurements in neurodegenerative subjects. In this study, FA(D) indicates the longitudinal fasciculus remains connected, however the complementary anisotropic information provided by α and H suggest the tissue microstructure is severely compromised, perhaps due to neurodegenerative processes or cell death.

Xin Lou¹, Diandian Huang¹, Lin Ma¹, and Kaining Shi^2
1Department of Radiology, Chinese PLA General Hospital, Beijing, Beijing, China, ²MR Research (China), General Electric Company GE ( China ) Co., Ltd.-Healthcare, Beijing, Beijing, China

DSA remains the method that can best measure collateral extents, but it is relatively time-consuming, invasive, and costly. Determining the presence and adequacy of collateral blood flow is important in patients with severe intracranial stenosis or occlusion due to collateral flow can maintain cerebral circulation and may be another potential therapeutic target in acute ischemic stroke. Our study suggest that multi-post labeling delay time three dimensional pseudo-continuous arterial spin labelling technique may be a useful tool to investigate the collateral perfusion in patients with intracranial arterial stenosis.

Junseok Kim^1,2, Jackie Leung², Indra Narang³, Suzan Williams⁴, and Andrea Kassner^1,2
1Medical Imaging, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, ²Physiology and Experimental Medicine, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, ³Respiratory Medicine, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, ⁴Haematology, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Previous work on the pediatric sickle cell disease (SCD) population has demonstrated that cerebrovascular reactivity (CVR), a measure of vascular health, was globally reduced compared to healthy controls. In addition, a high percentage of SCD patients suffer from obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). It is currently unknown if the presence of OSA in SCD further impairs vascular health. We hypothesized that CVR is globally reduced in SCD patients with OSA compared to those without. The results showed that CVR in the SCD patients with OSA was significantly lower than those without OSA, thus placing them at greater risk for serious vasculopathies.

Hong Sik Byun¹, Jihoon Cha¹, Oh Young Bang², Suk Jae Kim², Sookyung Ryoo², Hyung-Jin Kim¹, Byung-joon Kim¹, Yi Kyung Kim¹, Ji Young Lee¹, Pyoung Jeon¹, and Keon Ha Kim^1
1Departments of Radiology, Samsung Medical Center, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, Seoul, Korea, ²Departments of Neurology, Samsung Medical Center, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, Seoul, Korea

Recently, high-resolution (HR) intracranial vessel wall imaging is used to demonstrate intracranial arterial wall abnormality. The aim of this study was to evaluate atherosclerotic plaque with contrast enhancement on the middle cerebral arteries (MCA) in patients with unilateral noncardiogenic acute ischemic stroke. Twenty-eight patients were included in this study. MRI was performed at 3.0 T. The patterns of enhancing wall thickening of the ipsilateral and contralateral MCA were compared. All of ipsilateral MCA and most of contralateral MCA showed enhancing wall thickening, however, the burden and involved site was different between ipsilateral and contralateral MCA.

Silvia Obertino¹, Ying-Chia Lin², Alessandro Daducci³, Jean-Philippe Thiran³, Reto Meuli⁴, Gunnar Krueger⁵, Cristina Granziera⁴, and Gloria Menegaz^1
1Computer Science, University of Verona, Verona, Select, Italy, ²Computer Science, University of Verona, Italy, ³Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL), Switzerland, ⁴CHUV, Lausanne, Switzerland, ⁵Siemens, Switzerland

This study aimed at investigating myelin and axonal plasticity in the subcortical motor networks (SC-MN) contralateral to stroke by applying diffusion spectrum (DSI) and magnetization transfer (MT) imaging. Ten patients and ten HC underwent DSI scans. Generalized Fractional Anisotropy (GFA) was derived from DSI scans and Magnetization transfer ratio (MTR) values were calculated as percent of the ratio (MT-M0)/M0 for each fiber. Both histogram features (mean, variance, skewness, kurtosys, peak hight, peak position) and measures of histogram distances were used for between group comparisons. Results suggest both short term (1 month) and mid term (6 months) axonal and myelin plasticity in the uninjured cortico-subcortical motor circuits.

Xiao Wang¹, Afshin A Divani², Xiao-Hong Zhu¹, Jessica Nordberg², Julian Tokarev², Yi Zhang¹, and Wei Chen^1
1Center for Magnetic Resonance Research, Department of Radiology, University of Minnesota Medical School, Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States,²Neurology, University of Minnesota, Minnesota, United States

The longitudinal relaxation rate (time) R1 (T1) is a crucial physical property which could guide the choice of imaging parameters and its alteration of tissue is also closely related to the underlying pathology of variety of diseases. This study aims to quantitatively investigate the R1 change of the rat brain tissue subsequent to the middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) on day 1 and day 7 after a 1-hour occlusion, and to examine CBF contribution to the brain tissue R1 alteration. The results show that the R1 in the varied lesion area decreases about 6-25% of its contralateral control and the R1 decrease is mainly dominated by the brain tissue property alteration. In addition, R1 shows statistic difference among varied lesion region while no statistic significant difference is found among baseline CBF on both day 1 and day 7 of post-occlusion, indicating that the R1 images are potentially more sensitive to the extent of lesion than CBF images. The quantified T1 (or R1) image is an important imaging modality and should provide a noninvasive, sensitive and reliable way to help determining the tissue damage caused by ischemic cerebrovascular diseases.

Subhendra Nath Sarkar¹, Robert Greenman², Faisal Khosa³, Rafeeque Bhadelia¹, Michael Plum¹, William Dunay¹, and David B Hackney^1
1Radiology, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, BOSTON, MA, United States, ²Radiology, Boston University Medical College, BOSTON, MA, United States, ³Radiology, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, United States

Low refocusing flip angle FSE sequence can easily lend to low TE, thereby strong T1 weightings, high SNR and imaging speed that has been used along with fat-water separation with IDEAL reconstruction to satisfactorily null cervical arterial lumens with high conspicuity of arterial walls without using diffusion or gated double IR preparation. This approach may be used for effective black blood imaging to evaluate dissection or carotid plaques with general purpose spine array coils at any field strength within clinically feasible scan times in acute or outpatient settings.

Shun Zhang¹, Wenzhen Zhu¹, Shuixia Zhang¹, Jingjing Shi¹, Yihao Yao¹, and Zhenyu Zhou^1
1Department of Radiology, Tongji Hospital, Wuhan, Hubei, China

Diffusion weighted imaging has been widely used in the clinical diagnosis of acute ischemic stroke£¬while it provides only less information. Diffusion kurtosis imaging is a quantitative measure of the non-Gaussianity of brain; may better characterize tissue microstructure. Our study is to investigate the temporal evolution of diffusion kurtosis imaging-related parameters in ischemic stroke.

Akio Tsukabe¹, Yoshiyuki Watanebe¹, Hisashi Tanaka¹, Yuuki Kunitomi¹, Mitsuo Nishizawa¹, Noriyuki Tomiyama¹, and Masanobu Nakamura^2
1Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology, Osaka University Graduate School of Medicine, Suita, Japan, ²Philips Electronics Japan, Japan

Recently 3D volumetric non contrast time-resolved MRA technique termed Contrast inherent inflow enhanced multi phase angiography combining multiple phase FAIR (CINEMA-FAIR) was proposed. CINEMA technique combines ASL with 3D segmented T1 weighted gradient echo sequence. FAIR preparation scheme with the Look-Locker sampling was used for spin tagging in this study. This study assessed the utility of CINEMA-FAIR as a diagnostic tool for intracranial AVF and AVM compared with contrast-enhanced dynamic MR angiography (CE-dMRA). CINEMA-FAIR could show comparable result from many view points, but was inferior to CE-dMRA in depicting drainage vein of AVM.

Pieter C. Vos^1,2, Steven Mocking², Priya Garg², Aurauma Chutinet³, William A. Copen⁴, Max A. Viergever¹, and Ona Wu^2
1Radiology, Image Sciences Institute, Utrecht, Utrecht, Netherlands, ²Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, United States, ³Department of Neurorology, MGH, Massachusetts, United States, ⁴Department of Radiology, MGH, Massachusetts, United States

DWI is a reliable and routinely-used modality in the acute setting of ischemic stroke. Automated approaches for outlining the DWI lesion have the potential to assist in the rapid assessment of lesion volumetry in the acute setting of stroke. Our results demonstrate that the segmentation performance of pixel classification approach can be significantly improved with regional analysis, i.e. using a supervised classifier that discriminates false detected regions from true lesion regions in a two-stage classification approach.

Parmede Vakil¹, Sameer A Ansari², H. Hunt. Batjer³, Bernard Bendok², Christopher S Eddleman³, Marie Wasielewski¹, and Timothy J Carroll^1
1Northwestern University, Chicago, Illinois, United States, ²Northwestern University, Chicago, IL, United States, ³UT Southwestern, Texas, United States

DCE-MRI derived intracranial aneurysm wall permeability is a quantitative, repeatable, and novel imaging metric that could provide additional and clinically useful information about aneurysm stability and rupture risk. Applications of this technique could include longitudinal study in individual patients.

Yash Vardhan Tiwari¹, Pavel Rodriguez¹, Yuhao Sun¹, Zhao Jiang¹, Fang Du¹, Qiang Shen¹, Wei Li¹, and Timothy Q Duong^1
1Research Imaging Institute, University of Texas Health Science Center San Antonio, San Antonio, Texas, United States

Previous studies have shown normobaric hyperoxia (NBO) to be effective in extending treatment time window in animal model of transient cerebral ischemia. However, both positive and negative effects of NBO treatment have been reported. As such, it is highly likely that the efficacy of NBO treatment in the early phase of ischemic insult is critically dependent on the treatment duration. To test this hypothesis, we evaluated the effects of varying treatment duration for NBO administration (25 and 150 min) on the 60-min MCAO model of stroke, longitudinally and noninvasively using quantitative MRI. We found that in early phase of acute experimental stroke the treatment outcome of NBO varies in a time dependent manner.

Ekaterina Tchistiakova^1,2, Carol E. Greenwood^3,4, Nicole D. Anderson^3,5, and Bradley J. MacIntosh^1,2
1Medical Biophysics, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada, ²Heart and Stroke Foundation Canadian Partnership for Stroke Recovery, Sunnybrook Research Institute, Toronto, ON, Canada, ³Rotman Research Institute, Baycrest, Toronto, ON, Canada, ⁴Department of Nutritional Sciences, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada, ⁵Department of Medicine (Psychiatry), University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada

Recent studies suggest that the negative effects of type 2 diabetes (T2DM) on the brain can result in increased risk of cognitive decline and dementia. It is still unclear, however, if T2DM effects exceed those seen in co-occurring comorbidities, in particular hypertension (HTN). In this study imaging metrics were used to compare brain structure and vascular integrity between individuals with T2DM and HTN and hypertensive controls. Our results demonstrate regional decreases in vascular reactivity and tissue volume (i.e. cortical thinning) in the right visual processing regions in individuals with T2DM and HTN compared to HTN alone.

Lijuan Zhang¹, Xiaojing Long¹, Yanjun Diao¹, Li Yi², and Chunxiang Jiang^1
1SIAT,Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen, Guangdong, China, ²Neurology,Peking University Shenzhen Hospital, Guangdong, China

Global alteration of the functional synchronization was observed in brains with typical focal IS lesion in this study. The varied regional homogeneity may indicate a disintegrative dynamic of the functional homeostasis of human brain under the ischemic injury. Rebalance of the functional synchronization at a global level may provide valuable reference for disease management and rehabilitation of ischemic stroke.

Xin Lou¹, Lin Ma¹, Diandian Huang¹, and Kaining Shi^2
1Department of Radiology, Chinese PLA General Hospital, Beijing, Beijing, China, ²MR Research (China), General Electric Company GE ( China ) Co., Ltd.-Healthcare, Beijing, Beijing, China

MELAS (mitochondrial myopathy, encephalopathy, lactic acidosis, and a stroke-like episode) is a mitochondrial disorder that the neurological deficits and imaging characteristics resemble features of ischemic stroke. Our study suggest that three dimensional pseudo-continuous arterial spin labelling, an alternative noninvasive perfusion technique based on fast spin echo sequence, is useful in differentiating MELAS from ischemic stroke when clinical symptoms and conventional MRI manifestations overlap in these two conditions.

Ekaterina Tchistiakova^1,2, David E. Crane², Sandra E. Black^2,3, and Bradley J. MacIntosh^1,2
1Medical Biophysics, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada, ²Heart and Stroke Foundation Canadian Partnership for Stroke Recovery, Sunnybrook Research Institute, Toronto, ON, Canada, ³Department of Medicine, Division of Neurology, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada

Cerebrovascular impairment is a common complication in individuals with cerebral small vessel disease (SVD). The presence of systemic conditions such as diabetes and hypertension can further hinder the maintenance of cerebral blood flow, thereby increasing the risk of TIA and stroke. In this study we examined the effects of systemic risk factors on cerebrovascular function, assessed using vascular reactivity metric (CVR), in individuals with SVD in regions associated with specific resting state networks. CVR decrease was associated with increased number of risk factors within the sensory-motor and default mode networks.

Woojin Lee¹, Bo-mi Gil¹, Jinhee Jang¹, Bom-yi Kim¹, In Seong Kim², Hyun Seok Choi¹, So Lyung Jung¹, Kook-Jin Ahn¹, and Bum-soo Kim^1
1Department of Radiology, Seoul St. Mary's Hospital,College of Medicine, Catholic University of Korea, Seocho-gu, Seoul, Korea, ²Siemens Healthcare, Korea, Seoul, Korea

As MR angiography cannot demonstrate vessel wall, vessel wall imaging is important to detect vulnerable atherosclerotic plaque. The goal of this study was to evaluate feasibility of T1 SPACE to detect intracranial atherosclerosis in nonsymptomatic patient. Twenty nonsymptomatic patients underwent both TOF and T1 SPACE using 3.0 Tesla MR system were enrolled.TOF-source was considered as a reference standard for lumen of intracranial arteries. We measured luminal area of basilar artery and both cavernous internal carotid arteries on T1 SPACE and TOF source and vessel wall thickness by subtracting luminal diameter on TOF-source from outer diameter on T1-SPACE.Vessel areas measured from TOF-source and T1 SPACE showed significant linear correlation.However,there was no correlation between atherosclerotic risk factors and vessel wall thickness.

Rainer Schneider^1,2, Christopher Gliemli³, Christian Geppert³, Jens Haueisen², Fernando Boada⁴, and Josef Pfeuffer^1
1MR Application Development, Siemens Healthcare, Erlangen, Bavaria, Germany, ²Institute of Biomedical Engineering and Informatics, TU Ilmenau, Ilmenau, Thuringia, Germany, ³Siemens Healthcare, MR Research & Development, New York, NY, United States, ⁴NYU Langone Medical Center, New York, NY, United States

In clinical 3T imaging, gradient-echo-based sequences oftensuffer from signal loss induced by patient specific susceptibility artifacts. To tackle this problem, a recently proposed local signal recovery method using parallel transmission was transferred to a clinical setup. The approach was further extended by B1 inhomogeneity correction and evaluated with human in-vivo experiments using the common FLASH sequence. Signals could be recovered up to 50% in frontal orbital cortex, while maintaining the SNR level. Full signal recovery could be achieved, if lower SNR levels are tolerated.

Akira Kunimatsu¹, Yasushi Watanabe², Naoyuki Takei³, Masaki Katsura¹, Harushi Mori¹, and Kuni Ohtomo^1
1Department of Radiology, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan, ²Department of Radiology, The University of Tokyo Hospital, Tokyo, Japan, ³Global MR Applications and Workflow, GE Healthcare, Japan

We assessed clinical utilities of an ASL-based non-contrast 4D MRA (inflow enhanced inversion recovery (IFIR) 4D MRA) incorporated into routine MRI protocols for patients with cerebral arteriovenous malformation (AVM). Non-contrast IFIR 4D MRA has a high spatial resolution almost equivalent to that of 3D TOF MRA and also can provide a higher temporal resolution than contrast-enhanced time-resolved MRA. Non-contrast IFIR 4D MRA was found to add hemodynamic information to 3D TOF MRA and can be an alternative to contrast-enhanced time-resolved MRA in evaluation of cerebral AVM.

Julien Bouvier^1,2, Olivier Detante^1,3, Florence Tahon⁴, Arnaud Attye⁴, Thomas Perret¹, David Chechin², Irene Tropres^1,5, Sylvie Grand^4,6, Emmanuel L Barbier^1,6, and Alexandre Krainik^1,4
1U836, INSERM, Grenoble, France, France, ²Philips Healthcare, Suresnes, France, France, ³Department of neurology, Joseph Fourier University, France, France, ⁴Department of neuroradiology and MRI, CHU de Grenoble, France, France, ⁵IRMaGe facility, Joseph Fourier University, France, France, ⁶Grenoble Institute of Neurosciences, Joseph Fourier University, France, France

To identify hemodynamic alteration related to steno-occlusive disease, functional MRI of cerebrovascular reserve (CVR fMRI) to hypercapnia has been proposed. A decreased vascular reserve downstream a severe intracranial arterial stenosis (SIAS) was associated with increased apparent diffusion coefficient, suggesting a chronic low-grade ischemia. However, relationships between hemodynamic disorder and metabolism has not been shown using MRI, yet. In such patients, these abnormalities may further motivate endovascular stenting. The aim of this study was to determine the relationships between tissular oxygen metabolism assessed with a multiparametric qBOLD (mqBOLD) approach with basal and functional changes of perfusion in patients with SIAS.

Edouard Michel Semaan¹, Shyam Prabhakaran², Kameswari Maganti³, Pim van Ooij¹, Zoran Stankovic¹, Alex Barker¹, James Carr¹, Michael Markl^1,4, and Jeremy Collins^1
1Radiology Department, Feinberg School of Medicine Northwestern University, Chicago, Illinois, United States, ²Neurology Department, Feinberg School of Medicine Northwestern University, Chicago, Illinois, United States, ³Cardiology Department, Feinberg School of Medicine Northwestern University, Chicago, Illinois, United States, ⁴Department of Biomedical Engineering, McCormick School of Engineering, Illinois, United States

Cryptogenic stroke accounts for 20-25% of embolic ischemic strokes. Several studies have suggested an association between descending aortic plaque and stroke. The purpose of this study was to assess retrograde diastolic flow at 4D flow MRI from the descending thoracic aorta into the great vessels in patients with cryptogenic stroke, as a potential stroke etiology. The prevalence of retrograde diastolic flow into the great vessels was 57%, and correlated with stroke location in 65% of subjects, providing a potential etiology for embolic stroke. Integrating 4D flow MRI into the cryptogenic stroke evaluation may enable therapies to prevent recurrent atheroembolism.

Y.C. Lin¹, A. Daducci², D.E. Meskaldji^2,3, J.P. Thiran^2,4, R. Meuli⁴, G. Krueger⁵, G. Menegaz¹, and C. Granziera^4
1Computer Science, University of Verona, Verona, VR, Italy, ²Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Lausanne, VD, Switzerland, ³MIPLab, Institute of Bioengeneering, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland, ⁴CHUV, Lausanne, VD, Switzerland, ⁵Siemens Schweiz AG, Renens, VD, Switzerland

Our group previously applied diffusion spectrum and magnetization transfer imaging (DSI and MTI) to show motor connectivity plasticity in the uninjured hemisphere after stroke. However, our previous studies focused on average MRI indexes of tract integrity (generalized fractional anisotropy (GFA) and magnetization transfer ratio (MTR)). These approaches offered a global view of tract remodeling but failed in revealing subtle changes affecting only partially single motor connections. In this work, we applied track-based quantitative analysis of GFA and MTR and supported evidence that this approach provides more detailed information on axonal plasticity and myelination after stroke.

Chou-Ming Cheng^1,2, Jin-Jie Hung¹, Hsiao-Wen Chung³, Hung Sheng Che⁴, Muh-Lii Liang⁵, Jen-Chuen Hsieh¹, Shing-Jong Lin¹, and Tzu-Chen Yeh^4
1Department of Medical Research and Education, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan, Taiwan, ²Graduate Institute of Biomedical Electronics and Bioinformatics, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan, Syrian Arab Republic, ³Graduate Institute of Biomedical Electronics and Bioinformatics, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan, Taiwan, ⁴Department of Radiology, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan, Taiwan, ⁵Neurosurgery Neurological Institute, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan, Taiwan

Moyamoya disease is characterized by Moyamoya vessels near the stenosis regions induced by progressive stenosis of the internal carotid artery, cerebral artery. CVR and OEF are critical indicators of the severity in Moyamoya disease. In this research, blood oxygenation level dependence (BOLD) functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) of carbogen inhalation and hand grasping are adapted as challenge tasks to probe CVR and OEF in Moyamoya disease.

Kambiz Nael¹, Scott R Lafleur¹, Adam Bernstein¹, Bruce M Coull², Chelsea S Kidwell², Elizabeth A Krupinski¹, and Theodore P Trouard^1
1Medical Imaging, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, United States, ²Neurology, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, United States

The DTI-fractional anisotropy (FA) changes in acute infarction are variable between the infarction core and ischemic regions depending on the severity of ischemia and time of onset. In this study, using a combination of DTI and DSC perfusion, we conducted a voxel-based analysis of FA changes in the white matter infarction and hypoperfusion using defined thresholds. We found significant reduction of FA values in the infarction white matter indicative of loss of cellular integrity. In addition, the FA values were significantly higher in the hypoperfused white matter with Tmax ¡Ý 6 suggestive of microstructural changes related to ischemia without cell membrane disruption.

Yash Vardhan Tiwari¹, Yuhao Sun¹, Fang Du¹, Qiang Shen¹, and Timothy Q Duong^1
1Research Imaging Institute, University of Texas Health Science Center San Antonio, San Antonio, Texas, United States

Normobaric hyperoxia (NBO) has shown to improve and worsen stroke outcomes in ischemic stroke. The positive outcome of NBO treatment in cerebral ischemia may depend on the treatment window and treatment duration which remain less explored. The goal of this study was to use quantitative MRI to longitudinally evaluate the effects of NBO in early pre-reperfusion treatment window (60 & 90 min reperfusion post MCAO) with varying NBO treatment duration (25 min & 50 min respectively). We conclude that NBO treatment along with reperfusion treatment reversed ADC lesion and salvaged tissue, and that longer treatment up to 50 min was more effective. We showed that NBO not only “buy” time and expand the treatment time window, but also that in pre reperfusion treatment window longer NBO treatment duration further salvages more tissues.

Dai Shan¹, Chunxiang Jiang¹, Xiaojing Long¹, Yanjun Diao¹, and Lijuan Zhang*^1
1Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology,Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen, Guangdong, China

We explored the remote effect of ischemic stroke by comparing the microstructural indices and fiber density in cerebral peduncles (CP) in 14 subjects diagnosed with single and unilateral ischemic stroke remote to the CP. Fiber density was dramatically decreased in the CP ipsilateral to the lesion while mean diffusivity and fractional anisotropy did not manifest significant difference between the bilateral CPs. Fiber density may serve as a sensitive index identifying remote white matter damage in acute ischemic stroke.

Marie-Charlotte Plichta¹, Agnes Aghetti², Thomas A Zeffiro³, Laurent Lamalle^4,5, Olivier Detante^6,7, Marc Hommel⁸, and Assia JAILLARD^5,9
1CHU Grenoble, Grenoble, France, ²Centre Hospitalo Universitaire, Grenoble, France, ³Neural Systems Group, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, United States, ⁴Unité IRM 3T - Recherche, Centre Hospitalo Universitaire, Grenoble, France, ⁵IRMaGe — Inserm US 17 / CNRS UMS 3552 RMN biomédicale et Neurosciences, SFR de l'Université Joseph Fourier, Grenoble, France, ⁶Stroke Unit, Centre Hospitalo Universitaire, Grenoble, France,⁷Equipe 5 : Neuroimagerie Fonctionnelle et Perfusion cérébrale, Grenoble Institut des Neurosciences (GIN) Inserm U 836, Grenoble, France, ⁸CIC Pôle Recherche, Centre Hospitalo Universitaire, Grenoble, France, ⁹Unité IRM 3T Recherche. Pôle Recherche., Centre Hospitalo Universitaire, Grenoble, France

We studied the effects of segmentation methods (SPM8) and lesion masking on the accuracy of MRI spatial normalization of brains and fMRI tactile task-related activation in large stroke lesions. The normalized T1-images were altered after Segment, with brain tissue outside of the MNI template. New-Segment method led to satisfactory T1-normalized images. There was no mask effect. We observed contralesional somatosensory activity using Segment and ipsilesional somatosensory activity with New-Segment. There was no mask effect with Segment, but higher activity with New-Segment. We showed that T1-image segmentation method influences spatial normalization, affecting the detection of task-related activity at the group level.

Yi-Hua Hsu¹, Chien-Hsiang Huang¹, Chiao-Chi V. Chen¹, Yong Wang², Peng Sun², Sheng-Kwei Song², and Chen Chang^1
1Institute of Biomedical Sciences, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan, Taiwan, ²Department of Radiology, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO, United States

Evaluating the brain with stroke is challenge because the progressive ischemic injury confounds MRI measurements. Diffusion weighted MRI has been shown to be sensitive in detecting acute ischemic lesions while losing its sensitivity and specificity to ischemic injury chronically. To demonstrate the underlying tissue changes leading to this loss of sensitivity and specificity of DWI, we employed in vivo diffusion basis spectrum imaging (DBSI), and post-imaging histology to assess the tissue structural changes in a stroke rat model. Results showed that DBSI specifically detects the ischemia-induced tissue damage and cell infiltration/proliferation.

Charles G Cantrell¹, Rajiv G Menon¹, Parmede Vakil¹, and Timothy Carroll^1
1Northwestern University, Chicago, IL, United States

We have developed a novel method of imaging OEF with MRI. We present an analysis of MR-OEF images using breath-hold and cardiac-gating as inducers of physiologic stress.

Youzhi Lai¹, Xia Wu^1,2, and Li Yao^1,2
1School of Information Science and Technology, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, Beijing, China, ²State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China

In this study, the sensorimotor network in resting state fMRI was investigated by group ICA and correlation analysis, for patients with leukoaraiosis (LA) and healthy controls. The results showed significant increased functional connectivity in medial volumes of dorsal posterior precuneus (DP-PCC), left lingual and supplementary motor area (SMA). Furthermore, the results also revealed a strong correlation between the visuospatial ability score of Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) and the number of positive z-scores in the DP-PCC. It was suggested that the motor dysfunction in patient with LA maybe associated with the impairment in visuospatial function.

Günther Grabner^1,2, Klaus A. Hausegger¹, Michael Hauser¹, Sonja M. Obmann³, Jörg R. Weber³, and Thomas Kau^1
1Institute of Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology, General Hospital of Klagenfurt, Klagenfurt, Carinthia, Austria, ²Carinthia University of Applied Sciences, Klagenfurt, Carinthia, Austria, ³Department of Neurology, General Hospital of Klagenfurt, Klagenfurt, Carinthia, Austria

The cortical vessel sign (CVS) on susceptibility-weighted images (SWI) is a known phenomenon in case of ischemic stroke. Here we evaluated the CVS which is defined by an enhanced visibility of venous blood vessels quantitatively in 13 patients in the subacute stage of embolic stroke. The CVS evaluation was based on automatic vessel segmentation and the definition of 3 dimensional ROIs. While the CVS may occasionally be positive in the region of irreversible ischemic brain infarction, automatic quantitative CVS analysis showed no significant difference between paired vascular territories in the subacute stage after mechanical thrombectomy.

Pavel Rodriguez¹, Jiang Zhao², Shiliang Huang², Qiang Shen², and Timothy Q. Duong^2
1Department of Radiology, University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, San Antonio, Texas, United States, ²Research Imaging Institute, University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, San Antonio, Texas, United States

Methylene blue (MB) has unique energy enhancing and antioxidant properties and has recently been shown to reduce neurobehavioral impairment in animal models of Parkinson's and Alzheimer’s Diseases. We recently showed that MB has significant effect on hemodynamics, metabolic activity, and evoked responses in vivo using MRI. The goal of this study was to evaluate the neuroprotective effect of MB treatment in ischemic stroke. We tested the hypothesis that MB treatment delays infarct growth in a permanent stroke in rats.

Lei Zhang^1,2, Qi Yang³, Xin Liu^1,2, and Yiu Cho Chung^1,2
1Paul C. Lauterbur Research Center for Biomedical Imaging, Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology,Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, China, ²Shenzhen Key Laboratory for MRI, Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology,Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, China, ³Radiology Department, Xuanwu Hosptial, Capital Medical University, Beijing, Beijing, China

Atherothrombotic intracranial disease is a major cause of cerebral ischemia. Lesion enhancement may be detected using high resolution T1 weighted imaging. MPRAGE are commonly used to detect thrombus in carotid plaques and other vascular beds. This study proposes the combined use of T1 weighted imaging and MPRAGE to help identify intraplaque hemorrhage. The protocol was applied in 10 patients diagnosed with intracranial artery stenosis. It was found that the lesions may or may not enhance post-contrast, and contrast enhancement of the lesion may not have associated hyperenhancement in MPRAGE.

Andrew Bivard¹, Venkatesh Krishnamurthy², and Mark Parsons^2
1Medicine, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Vic, Australia, ²University of Newcastle, NSW, Australia

Hyperperfusion on arterial spin labeling (ASL) has been associated with improved clinical outcome. We sort to assess the metabolic profile of patients recovering from ischemic stroke following successful reperfusion and penumbra salvage. Magnetic resonance spectroscopy was performed in 60 patients 24 hours after symptom onset with voxels were placed in the reperfused tissue that did not infarct on diffusion imaging and exactly contralateral. Hyperperfusion and increased glutamate on MRS in recently reperfused tissue was significantly related to improved patient outcome on the modified Rankin disability scale (p<0.001). Increased glutamate and was a marker of significantly better patient outcome following stroke.

Jhimli Mitra¹, Soumya Ghose¹, Pierrick Bourgeat¹, Olivier Salvado¹, Stephen Rose¹, Bruce Campbell², Alan Connelly³, Susan Palmer⁴, Leeanne Carey⁴, and Jurgen Fripp^1
1The Australian e-Health Research Centre, CSIRO Computational Informatics, CSIRO Preventative-Health Flagship, Herston, QLD, Australia, ²Department of Medicine and Neurology, Royal Melbourne Hospital, Parkville, VIC, Australia, ³Department of Radiology, Royal Melbourne Hospital, Parkville, VIC, Australia,⁴The Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health, Parkville, VIC, Australia

We present an automated method to delineate chronic ischemic stroke lesions, white-matter hyperintensities and other secondary lesions from multimodal MRI. Accurate delineation of such lesions is crucial in analyzing the structure-function relationships of the brain post-stroke and critical in the management of stroke patients. The method firstly employed a maximum aposteriori-Markov field based segmentation of the probable lesion areas from hyperintense regions of FLAIR images. Then features of these lesion areas from the multimodal MRI were used to train/test a random forest classifier. The performance was evaluated on 36 stroke patients (mean Dice 0.60+/-0.12, volume correlation 0.76)