Early marker for Alzheimer's disease: hippocampus T1rho (T(1rho)) estimation.
OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the T1rho (T(1rho)) MRI relaxation time in hippocampus in the brain of Alzheimer's disease (AD), mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and control, and to determine whether the T(1rho) shows any significant difference between these cohorts.


METHODS
With informed consent, AD (n = 49), MCI (n = 48), and age-matched control (n = 31) underwent T(1rho) MRI on a Siemens 1.5T Scanner. T(1rho) values were automatically calculated from the left and right hippocampus region using in-house developed software. Bonferroni post-hoc multiple comparisons was performed to compare the T(1rho) value among the different cohorts.


RESULTS
Significantly higher T(1rho) values were observed both in AD (P = 0.000) and MCI (P = 0.037) cohorts compared to control; also, the T(1rho) in AD was significantly high over (P = 0.032) MCI. Hippocampus T(1rho) was 13% greater in the AD patients than control, while in MCI it was 7% greater than control. Hippocampus T(1rho) in AD patients was 6% greater than MCI.


CONCLUSIONS
Higher hippocampus T(1rho) values in the AD patients might be associated with the increased plaques burden. A follow-up study would help to determine the efficacy of T(1rho) values as a predictor of developing AD in the control and MCI individuals.
Haris
Mohammad
M
MMRRCC, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104-6100, USA. haris@mail.mmrrcc.upenn.edu
McArdle
Erin
E
Fenty
Matthew
M
Singh
Anup
A
Davatzikos
Christos
C
Trojanowski
John Q
JQ
Melhem
Elias R
ER
Clark
Christopher M
CM
Borthakur
Arijitt
A
D000368:Aged; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000175:diagnosis*; D015415:Biomarkers; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis*; D005260:Female; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000473:pathology*; D006801:Humans; D007090:Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D058225:Plaque, Amyloid / Q000473:pathology*; D011379:Prognosis; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity
D015415:Biomarkers