Magnetization transfer imaging demonstrates a distributed pattern of microstructural changes of the cerebral cortex in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

ABSTRACT:

Background and purpose

To date, damage of the cerebral cortex neurons in ALS was investigated by using conventional MR imaging and proton MR spectroscopy. We explored the capability of MTI to map the microstructural changes in cerebral motor and extramotor cortices of patients with ALS.

Materials and methods

Twenty patients with ALS and 17 age-matched healthy controls were enrolled. A high-resolution 3D SPGR sequence with and without MT saturation pulses was obtained on a 1.5T scanner to compute MTR values. Using the FMRIB Software Library tools, we automatically computed the MTR of the cerebral cortex GM in 48 regions of the entire cerebral cortex derived from the standard Harvard-Oxford cortical atlas.

Results

The MTR values were significantly lower in patients with

SUBMITTER: Cosottini M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7965898 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature