Advanced

AJNR - American Journal of Neuroradiology

Published ahead of print on February 12, 2009
doi: 10.3174/ajnr.A1495

This Article Free to Access Figures Only Full Text Full Text (PDF) All Versions of this Article: ajnr.A1495v1 ajnr.A1495v2 ajnr.A1495v3 ajnr.A1495v4 30/5/978    most recent Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via CrossRef Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Mellon, E.A. Articles by Reddy, R. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Mellon, E.A. Articles by Reddy, R.

American Journal of Neuroradiology 30:978-984, May 2009
© 2009 American Society of Neuroradiology

FUNCTIONAL

Sodium MR Imaging Detection of Mild Alzheimer Disease: Preliminary Study

E.A. Mellon^a, D.T. Pilkinton^a, C.M. Clark^b, M.A. Elliott^a, W.R. Witschey, 2nd^a, A. Borthakur^a and R. Reddy^a

^a Department of Radiology, MMRRCC, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pa
^b Department of Neurology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pa

Please address correspondence to Eric Mellon, B1 Stellar-Chance Laboratories, 422 Curie Blvd, Philadelphia, PA 19104-6100; e-mail: eric{at}mail.mmrrcc.upenn.edu

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: There is significant interest in the development of novel noninvasive techniques for the diagnosis of Alzheimer disease (AD) and tracking its progression. Because MR imaging has detected alterations in sodium levels that correlate with cell death in stroke, we hypothesized that there would be alterations of sodium levels in the brains of patients with AD, related to AD cell death.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 10 volunteers (5 with mild AD and 5 healthy control subjects) were scanned with a 20-minute sodium (²³Na) MR imaging protocol on a 3T clinical scanner.

RESULTS: After normalizing the signal intensity from the medial temporal lobes corresponding to the hippocampus with the ventricular signal intensity, we were able to detect a 7.5% signal intensity increase in the brains of patients with AD (AD group, 68.25% ± 3.4% vs control group, 60.75% ± 2.9%; P < .01). This signal intensity enhancement inversely correlated with hippocampal volume (AD group, 3.22 ± 0.50 cm³ vs control group, 3.91 ± 0.45 cm³; r² = 0.50).

CONCLUSIONS: This finding suggests that sodium imaging may be a clinically useful tool to detect the neuropathologic changes associated with AD.

This article has been cited by other articles:

				M. Inglese, G. Madelin, N. Oesingmann, J. S. Babb, W. Wu, B. Stoeckel, J. Herbert, and G. Johnson Brain tissue sodium concentration in multiple sclerosis: a sodium imaging study at 3 tesla Brain, January 27, 2010; (2010): awp334v1 - awp334. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]