title: Two forms of iron as an intrinsic contrast agent in the basal ganglia of PKAN patients.
abstract: Iron deposits in the human brain can be considered as intrinsic contrast agents for magnetic resonance imaging and are used as markers of neurodegeneration accompanied by brain-iron accumulation. We studied one of them - panthotenate-kinase associated neurodegeneration (PKAN) - by using relaxometry at 1.5, 3.0 and 7 T in a group of six patients; we also measured a group of five volunteers for comparison. Based on the magnetic field dependency of antiferromagnetic ferritin and maghemite iron oxide nanoparticle relaxivities, we derived a two-component model for the description of iron deposits in the globus pallidus of PKAN patients. According to this model, we estimated the iron content in PKAN patients as 391 µg/ml of antiferromagnetic iron (ferritin) and 1.1 µg/ml of ferrimagnetic iron, compared with 178 µg/ml of iron in ferritin found in controls. This two-component model explains the nonlinear shape of the relaxometric curves in in vivo measurements of the relaxation rates of PKAN patients and is supported by histological findings in the original reports on PKAN patients.
authors.affiliation: MR Unit, Department of Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology, Institute for Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Prague, Czech Republic. mode@medicon.cz
authors.forename: Monika
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Dezortova
authors.forename: Vit
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Herynek
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Krssak
authors.forename: Claudia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Kronerwetter
authors.forename: Siegfried
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Trattnig
authors.forename: Milan
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hajek
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D005290:Ferric Compounds / Q000378:metabolism*; D005293:Ferritins / Q000378:metabolism*; D005917:Globus Pallidus / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D006211:Pantothenate Kinase-Associated Neurodegeneration / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology
chemical_list: D005290:Ferric Compounds; C000499:ferric oxide; D005293:Ferritins