Accelerating Magnetic Resonance Imaging for a Potential Image Based Biomarker of Parkinson Disease

Broad long term objective Parkinson disease (PD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disease. The team reported that mean diffusion kurtosis as measured by diffusion MRI could separate the patients with probably PD from age range matched normal controls with significant improvement in the diagnostic performance. However, the underlying pathophysiology for the observed diffusion changes is still largely under investigation. Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) is usually difficult in patients with PD, because of the slow acquisition and increased sensitivity to motion. The objective of the study is to develop and optimize a novel accelerated MRI technique using advanced compressed sensing techniques. Because of the accelerated acquisition, the measurement of multiple functional information contents from MRI will be possible. The accelerated acquisition of MRI with compressed sensing could show reduced motion sensitivity and improved susceptibility related artifact. With these improvements, the long term objective is to detect the macromolecule deposition in the brain of patients with PD by multi-functional MRI. Specific aims The accelerated MRI techniques will be used to acquire data from healthy volunteers and patients with Parkinson disease. The specific aims of the project are: a. To develop and optimize a novel accelerated MRI technique using advanced compressed sensing techniques; b. To test the efficiency of the new accelerated MRI technique in healthy human; and c. To investigate the multi-functional content of accelerated MRI in patients of PD. Health relatedness The hypothesis of the study is that the abnormal macromolecular deposition such as alpha synuclein in the brain of the patient might change the T1 Rho relaxation time. The related iron deposition can be detected by susceptibility weighted imaging. As the disease progresses, potential apoptosis or necrosis will result in changes in cellularity, which can be detected by diffusion MRI. At an advanced stage, the cell death will lead to brain atrophy, which can be noticed by conventional morphological imaging. Therefore, integrating the multi-functional MRI could be related to the disease progression and potentially provide new insight into the underlying pathophysiology. The understanding of the disease mechanism might lead to the reduction in health cost and disease co-morbidity, improvement in effective treatment course and avoidance of un-necessary intervention. Concisely the design and method The experiment will be divided into the following phases. In the development and implement phase, the MR pulse sequences will be modified for fast acquisition and the compressed sensing algorithm will be implemented in an online reconstructed platform. In the animal phase, images from wild type mice and mice with PD will be acquired for evaluation. In the human phase, the diagnostic performance will be validated in healthy control and patients with PD. The multi-functional MRI will be correlated with disease severity. Finally a risk management report will be concluded.

Project ID:PC10408-2113
External Project ID:MOST104-2314-B182-042