Features Of Iron Deposition In Brain Of Patients With Alzheimer's Disease By Susceptibility-Weighted Imaging

Objective:The primary puroses of this article were to investigate features of iron deposition in brain of patients with Alzheimer's disease by susceptibility-weighted imaging (SWI), and correlation of brain iron concentration to mini-mental state examination (MMSE), activity of daily living (ADL), clinical dementia rating (CDR).Methods:The participants included AD group and normal control group, age and sex matched. AD patients were diagnosed according to National Institute of Neurological and Communicative Disorders and Stroke and the Alzheimer's Disease and Related Disorders Association (NINCDS-ADRDA). To the prevalence rate of AD, the contributions of education, occupation, living environment, smoking, alcohol, tea, hypertension, heart disease, diabete mellitus, family history of dementia, serum glucose, serum total cholesterol, serum triglyceride, serum low density lipoprotein, serum high density lipoprotein, blood routine, liver function, renal function, thyroid gland function, cervical vascular ultrasonography were investigated. MMSE and ADL of AD group were compared to normal control group. The phase value and iron concentrations of the bilateral hippocampus(HP), globus pallidus, parietal cortex(PC), frontal white matter, putamen(PU), caudate nucleus(CN), thalamus, red mucleus, substantia nigra, and dentate nucleus(DN) of the cerebellum of AD group and normal control group were compared. And the phase value of regions of interest with significance between these two groups were examined for correlation with MMSE, ADL, CDR, by using a two-tailed Student-Newman-Keuls t test (analysis of variance), linear correlation test and Spearman test.Results:There were60AD patients in AD group, and60healthy people in normal control group, with age and sex matched to AD group,10of each group underwent high-resolution magnetic resonance (MR) phase-corrected imaging. Multivariate logistic analysis revealed that family history of dementia, high serum TC, high serum TG, and cervical arteries atherosclerosis, cervical arteries necrosis, were probable risk factors, contributing to the prevalence of AD (P<0.05). Phase value of bilateral HP, CN, PU, thalamus, right DN, left globus pallidus and frontal white matter in AD group were significantly lower than that in normal control group(P<0.05). Phase value of bilateral HP, CN, PU, thalamus, right DN, left globus pallidus and frontal white matter in AD group were positively correlated with MMSE(P<0.05) and inversely correlated with ADL(P<0.05). Phase value of bilateral HP, PU, thalamus, right DN, left globus pallidus, left CN and left frontal white matter in AD group were inversely correlated with CDR(P<0.05).Conclusion:Iron concentration increases in various brain regions in AD patients, and positively correlated with severity of disease. Regional increase of iron concentration in brain might relate to the cerebral vescular athrosclerosis. The concentration of iron in brain is able to be detected by MR SWI.