Quantitative MR phase-corrected imaging to investigate increased brain iron deposition of patients with Alzheimer disease.
OBJECTIVE
Brain iron deposition has been proposed to play an important role in the pathophysiology of neurodegenerative diseases. The aim of this study was to investigate the correlation of brain iron accumulation with the severity of cognitive impairment in patients with Alzheimer disease (AD).


METHODS
This study was approved by the institutional review board of Tongji Hospital (Wuhan, China) and written informed consent was obtained from all participants. Fifteen patients with AD, 15 age-and sex-matched healthy controls, and 30 healthy volunteers underwent high-resolution magnetic resonance (MR) phase-corrected imaging. The phase shift and iron concentrations of the bilateral hippocampus (HP), parietal cortex (PC), frontal white matter, putamen (PU), caudate nucleus (CN), thalamus, red nucleus, substantia nigra, and dentate nucleus (DN) of the cerebellum were examined for correlation with severity of dementia by using a two-tailed Student-Newman-Keuls t test (analysis of variance) and linear correlation test.


RESULTS
Regional phase shifts on phase-corrected images were negatively correlated with regional brain iron concentration in healthy adults (r = -0.926, P = .003). Iron concentrations in the bilateral HP, PC, PU, CN, and DN subregions of patients with AD were significantly higher than the controls (P < .05), Moreover, these brain iron concentrations, especially those in the PC at the early stages of AD, were positively correlated with the severity of patients' cognitive impairment (P < .05).


CONCLUSIONS
Iron concentration in the PC was positively correlated with the severity of AD patients' cognitive impairment, indicating that it may be used as a biomarker to evaluate the progression of AD.
Zhu
Wen-Zhen
WZ
Department of Radiology, Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science & Technology, Wuhan, China.
Zhong
Wei-de
WD
Wang
Wei
W
Zhan
Chuan-Jia
CJ
Wang
Cheng-Yuan
CY
Qi
Jian-Pin
JP
Wang
Jian-Zhi
JZ
Lei
Ting
T
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000523:psychology; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000032:analysis; D001921:Brain / Q000378:metabolism*; D003071:Cognition; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007501:Iron / Q000378:metabolism*; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged
D015415:Biomarkers; D007501:Iron