The Value Of Magnetic Resonance Diffusion Kurtosis Imaging In Patients With Alzheimer’s Disease

Objective： To evaluate the difference of fractional anisotrpy(AF),meandiffusivity(MD) and mean kurtosis(MK) values detected by DKI technique in MCI,AD patients and normal coginitive(NC) volunteers, to explore the characteristicchanges of cerebral microstructure in AD patients and to assess the applicability ofDKI in AD diagnosis.Materials and Methods：Routine MRI and DKI scanning were performed to20MCIpatients,20NC volunteers and14AD patients at Siemens Verio3.0T MagneticResonance scanner.The regions were set in the anterior frontal white matter, parietalwhite matter, temperal white matter and hippocampus. The MK、MD and FA values ofbilateralis ROIs were measured in the postprocessing workstation after scanning andwere respectively mutually compared in three groups.Results：(1)The results about MD value:In NC-AD groups, the MD value of all thefour ROIs had significantly difference(p<0.05)；In MCI-AD groups,the significantdifferences were only exist in hippocampus(p<0.05)；In MCI-AD groups,there wereno significant difference in all ROIs.(2)The results about MK value:In NC and ADgroups, the MK value of all the four ROIs had significantly difference(p<0.05)；InMCI-AD groups and MCI-AD groups,the significant differences were only exist inhippocampus(p<0.05).(3)The results about FA value:the significant differences wereonly found in NC-AD groups,,and only in the parietal white matter(p<0.05).Conclusion：Changes in the cerebral microstructure can be observed in patients withAD,the specific appearance is the decreased MK,FA values,and increased MDwalue.Among them,MK was thought to be the most sensitive parameter,especilly inhippocampus,which can lead to a diagnosis in the early stage of MCI,and can make differential diagnosis between MCI and AD patients.Therefore, DKI may can serve assensitive imaging biomarker for evaluating AD.