Application Of Three-dimensional Pseudo-continuous Arterial Spin Labeling In Alzheimer’s Disease

Objects: To investigate the cerebral blood flow perfusion and its correlation with cognitive function in patients with Alzheimer’s disease(AD)by using magnetic resonance three-dimensional Pseudo-continuous Arterial spin labeling technique,and the correlation between CBF and MMSE was analyzed.Methods: From January 2017 to December 2017,31 patients with AD were selected as the case group(AD group)who had been diagnosed at the 4th Department of Neurology Outpatient of Shengjing Hospital affiliated to China Medical University,32 normal volunteers with similar sex,age and education were used as control group(NC group).All subjects were scanned with 3D-p CASL sequence and routine sequence on Philip Ingenia 3.0T magnetic resonance scanner.Routine sequence excluded intracranial organic lesions,and patients were told to keep their head still before scanning so as to avoid motion artifacts.The 3D-p CASL cerebral perfusion map was uploaded to the post processing workstation of Philips,and the regions of interest were drawn manually to measure the cerebral blood flow.ROI was chosen to avoid venous sinus,ventricle and sulcus.Mini-Mental State Examination(MMSE)was used to evaluate the cognitive function before MR scan.Independent sample t-test was used to compare the difference of age,sex,years of education,CBF value and MMSE score between the case group and the control group.Pearson correlation analysis was used to analyze CBF and MMSE score in AD group(P < 0.05).Results:(1)The MMSE score of the case group was lower than that of the control group.The difference was statistically significant(P<0.05).There was no significant difference in age,sex and years of education between the case group and the control group(P>0.05).(2)Compared with NC group,the cerebral blood flow in AD group was decreased in bilateral frontal lobe,parietal lobe,temporal lobe,bilateral posterior cingulate gyrus and bilateral occipital lobe,and the difference was statistically significant(P<0.05).The decrease of cerebral blood flow in bilateral basal ganglia was not significant(P>0.05).(3)The CBF of right frontal lobe,left frontal lobe,right parietal lobe,left parietal lobe,right temporal lobe,right posterior cingulate gyrus,left posterior cingulate gyrus,right occipital lobe and left occipital lobe were positively correlated with MMSE scores(r=0.507-0.824,P<0.05).Conclusions: ASL can detect the decrease of cerebral blood flow in AD patients,and has a certain correlation with cognitive score.The combination of the two can be used to assist the diagnosis of AD.