Abstract
Purpose
To evaluate the T1rho (T~1ρ~) MRI relaxation time in hippocampus in the brain of Alzheimer's disease (AD), mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and control, and to determine whether the T~1ρ~ shows any significant difference between these cohorts.
Materials and Methods
With informed consent, AD (n = 49), MCI (n = 48), and age‐matched control (n = 31) underwent T~1ρ~ MRI on a Siemens 1.5T Scanner. T~1ρ~ values were automatically calculated from the left and right hippocampus region using in‐house developed software. Bonferroni post‐hoc multiple comparisons was performed to compare the T~1ρ~ value among the different cohorts.
Results
Significantly higher T~1ρ~ values were observed both in AD (P = 0.000) and MCI (P = 0.037) cohorts compared to control; also, the T~1ρ~ in AD was significantly high over (P = 0.032) MCI. Hippocampus T~1ρ~ was 13% greater in the AD patients than control, while in MCI it was 7% greater than control. Hippocampus T~1ρ~ in AD patients was 6% greater than MCI.
Conclusion
Higher hippocampus T~1ρ~ values in the AD patients might be associated with the increased plaques burden. A follow‐up study would help to determine the efficacy of T~1ρ~ values as a predictor of developing AD in the control and MCI individuals. J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 2009;29:1008–1012. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.