Brain Parenchymal Fraction: A Relatively Simple MRI Measure to Clinically Distinguish ALS Phenotypes

BioMed Research International
Venkateswaran Rajagopalan, Erik P Pioro

Abstract

Even though neuroimaging and clinical studies indicate that amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) manifests with distinct clinical phenotypes, no objective test exists to assess upper motor degeneration in ALS. There is great interest in identifying biomarkers of ALS to allow earlier diagnosis and to recognize disease subtypes. Current quantitative neuroimaging techniques such as T2 relaxometry and diffusion tensor imaging are time-consuming to use in clinical settings due to extensive postprocessing requirements. Therefore, we aimed to study the potential role of brain parenchymal fraction (BPF) as a relatively simple quantitative measure for distinguishing ALS phenotypes. T1-weighted MR images of brain were obtained in 15 neurological controls and 88 ALS patients categorized into 4 distinct clinical phenotypes, upper motor neuron- (UMN-) predominant ALS patients with/without corticospinal tract (CST) hyperintensity on T2/PD-weighted images, classic ALS, and ALS with frontotemporal dementia (ALS-FTD). BPF was calculated using intracranial grey matter, white matter, and cerebrospinal fluid volumes obtained in control and ALS subgroups using SPM8 software. Only ALS-FTD patients had significant reduction in BPF when compared to con...Continue Reading

References

Aug 17, 1999·Journal of the Neurological Sciences·B R Brooks
Jul 24, 2001·Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis and Other Motor Neuron Disorders : Official Publication of the World Federation of Neurology, Research Group on Motor Neuron Diseases·B R BrooksUNKNOWN World Federation of Neurology Research Group on Motor Neuron Diseases
Dec 2, 2005·Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis and Other Motor Neuron Disorders : Official Publication of the World Federation of Neurology, Research Group on Motor Neuron Diseases·Jan KassubekAlbert C Ludolph
Jul 19, 2013·Journal of Neurology·Venkateswaran RajagopalanErik P Pioro
Feb 22, 2014·Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis & Frontotemporal Degeneration·Venkateswaran Rajagopalan, Erik P Pioro
Aug 15, 2014·Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry·Renée WalhoutLeonard H van den Berg

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Citations

Jul 30, 2019·Frontiers in Neuroscience·Venkateswaran Rajagopalan, Erik P Pioro
Apr 25, 2020·AJNR. American Journal of Neuroradiology·K A CauleyS W Fielden
Dec 12, 2020·AJNR. American Journal of Neuroradiology·K A CauleyS W Fielden
Jun 19, 2021·AJNR. American Journal of Neuroradiology·K A CauleyS W Fielden

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Software Mentioned

SPM8

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