Longitudinal Magnetization Transfer Imaging in Mild to Severe Alzheimer Disease

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Fig 1.
Averaged histograms from all AD patients for baseline and follow-up scans. Already at month 6, a reduction of both the peak position and the relative peak height are clearly visible.
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Fig 2.
Hemispheric difference of the association between MTR and MMSE in the hippocampus (HC) with a constantly stronger relationship on the left hemisphere.

Table 1:

Baseline and follow-up MTR data, brain volume loss, and MMSE score

	Controls	AD Baseline	AD Month 6	AD Month 12
n	19	28	27	18
Sex (M/F)	8/11	14/14	14/13	8/10
Age	73.3 (3.2)	76.5 (5.8)	76.5 (5.9)	76.1 (5.8)
Global MTR
Histogram peak position [%]	67.21 (0.68)	66.51 (1.0)^{^a}	65.77 (0.90)^{^b}	65.46 (1.20)^{^b}
Histogram peak height [a.u.]	0.591 (0.04)	0.554 (0.04)^{^a}	0.515 (0.07)^{^b}	0.501 (0.06)^{^b}
Mean histogram MTR [%]	55.26 (1.30)	53.55 (1.50)^{^a}	51.63 (1.37)^{^b}	50.89 (1.45)^{^b}
Regional MTR
Hippocampus MTR [%]	63.68 (1.51)	62.51 (1.21)^{^a}	61.04 (1.42)^{^b}	60.48 (1.15)^{^b}
Caudate nucleus MTR [%]	57.51 (1.01)	57.15 (1.24)	55.52 (2.23)^{^b}	54.7 (2.06)^{^b}
Thalamus MTR [%]	62.51 (1.47)	63.33 (1.52)	61.78 (1.99)^{^b}	61.35 (2.35)^{^b}
Putamen MTR [%]	57.74 (1.13)	58.04 (1.49)	58.12 (1.21)	57.59 (1.47)^{^b}
Brain volume loss [%]	NA	NA	1.04 (1.68)	2.22 (1.87)
Hippocampal volume loss [%]	NA	NA	1.77 (2.99)	2.86 (3.62)
MMSE	27.6 (0.8)	18.9 (2.8)	18.8 (4.8)	18.6 (4.3)

Note:—For the regional MTR analysis, values from both hemispheres were averaged; a.u. indicates arbitrary unit(s).
↵a Significant difference between AD patients and controls.
↵b Significant difference from baseline.

Table 2:

Relation between deep gray matter MTR and cognition in AD patients at baseline