Ultra-high field 7T MRI: a new tool for studying Alzheimer's disease

Ultra-high field 7T MRI offers superior signal-to-noise and spatial resolution relative to any other noninvasive imaging technique. By revealing fine anatomical details of the living brain, 7T MRI allows neuroimaging researchers the opportunity to observe in patients disease-related structural changes previously apparent only on postmortem tissue analysis. Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a natural subject for this technology, and I review here two AD-related applications of 7T MRI: direct visualization of cortical plaques, and high resolution hippocampal imaging. I also discuss limitations of this technology as well as expected advances that are likely to establish 7T MRI as an increasingly important tool for the diagnosis and tracking of AD.