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MR fingerprinting as a diagnostic tool in patients with frontotemporal lobe degeneration: A pilot study

Vera Catharina Keil1, Stilyana Peteva Bakoeva1, Alina Jurcoane1,2

  • 1Department of Radiology, University Hospital Bonn, Venusberg Campus 1, Bonn, Germany.

NMR in Biomedicine
|August 9, 2019
PubMed

Insights

Magnetic resonance fingerprinting (MRF) shows potential for diagnosing frontotemporal lobe degeneration by detecting differences in brain relaxation times. This new MRI technique may help monitor disease progression and identify affected individuals.

Area of Science:

  • Neuroimaging
  • Radiology
  • Biophysics

Background:

  • Frontotemporal lobe degeneration (FTLD) is a group of rare dementias characterized by focal brain atrophy.
  • Current imaging techniques struggle to monitor disease progression in FTLD.
  • Magnetic Resonance Fingerprinting (MRF) offers quantitative imaging with multiple contrasts from a single sequence.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To explore the utility of MRF-based T1 and T2 mapping for detecting focal differences in relaxation times.
  • To compare MRF-derived relaxation times between FTLD patients and healthy controls.
  • To assess MRF's potential as a diagnostic tool for FTLD.

Main Methods:

  • A pilot study involving 8 FTLD patients and 30 healthy controls.
  • Acquisition of 3 Tesla MRI data using an axial 2D spoiled gradient echo MRF sequence.
  • Generation of T1 and T2 relaxation maps using an extended phase graphs algorithm and dictionary-based pattern matching.
  • Region of interest (ROI) analysis of relaxation times using FSL and ITK-SNAP.

Main Results:

  • FTLD patients exhibited longer T1 relaxation times in cortical gray matter, white matter, and hippocampi compared to controls.
  • T2 relaxation times were significantly longer in the hippocampi of patients.
  • Strong correlations were found between T1 relaxation times in the amygdala and disease duration, and in the left hippocampus and disease severity.
  • The most clinically affected patient displayed the most pronounced deviations in relaxation times.

Conclusions:

  • MRF-based relaxometry is a promising, time-efficient MRI tool for studying focal brain alterations in FTLD.
  • MRF demonstrates potential for identifying patients with frontotemporal lobe degeneration.
  • Further research is warranted to validate MRF as a diagnostic tool for neurodegenerative diseases.
Keywords:
RF pulse designacquisition methodsdementianeurodegenerative diseasesrelaxometry

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