TY - JOUR
T1 - Can post-mortem MRI be used as a proxy for in vivo? A case study
AU - Boon, Baayla D. C.
AU - Pouwels, Petra J. W.
AU - Jonkman, Laura E.
AU - Keijzer, Matthijs J.
AU - Preziosa, Paolo
AU - van de Berg, Wilma D. J.
AU - Geurts, Jeroen J. G.
AU - Scheltens, Philip
AU - Barkhof, Frederik
AU - Rozemuller, Annemieke J. M.
AU - Bouwman, Femke H.
AU - Steenwijk, Martijn D.
N1 - © The Author(s) (2019). Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Guarantors of Brain.
PY - 2019/10/24
Y1 - 2019/10/24
N2 - Post-mortem in situ MRI has been used as an intermediate between brain histo(patho)logy and in vivo imaging. However, it is not known how comparable post-mortem in situ is to ante-mortem imaging. We report the unique situation of a patient with familial early-onset Alzheimer's disease due to a PSEN1 mutation, who underwent ante-mortem brain MRI and post-mortem in situ imaging only 4 days apart. T1-weighted and diffusion MRI was performed at 3-Tesla at both time points. Visual atrophy rating scales, brain volume, cortical thickness and diffusion measures were derived from both scans and compared. Post-mortem visual atrophy scores decreased 0.5-1 point compared with ante-mortem, indicating an increase in brain volume. This was confirmed by quantitative analysis; showing a 27% decrease of ventricular and 7% increase of whole-brain volume. This increase was more pronounced in the cerebellum and supratentorial white matter than in grey matter. Furthermore, axial and radial diffusivity decreased up to 60% post-mortem whereas average fractional anisotropy of white matter increased approximately 10%. This unique case study shows that the process of dying affects several imaging markers. These changes need to be taken into account when interpreting post-mortem MRI to make inferences on the in vivo situation.
AB - Post-mortem in situ MRI has been used as an intermediate between brain histo(patho)logy and in vivo imaging. However, it is not known how comparable post-mortem in situ is to ante-mortem imaging. We report the unique situation of a patient with familial early-onset Alzheimer's disease due to a PSEN1 mutation, who underwent ante-mortem brain MRI and post-mortem in situ imaging only 4 days apart. T1-weighted and diffusion MRI was performed at 3-Tesla at both time points. Visual atrophy rating scales, brain volume, cortical thickness and diffusion measures were derived from both scans and compared. Post-mortem visual atrophy scores decreased 0.5-1 point compared with ante-mortem, indicating an increase in brain volume. This was confirmed by quantitative analysis; showing a 27% decrease of ventricular and 7% increase of whole-brain volume. This increase was more pronounced in the cerebellum and supratentorial white matter than in grey matter. Furthermore, axial and radial diffusivity decreased up to 60% post-mortem whereas average fractional anisotropy of white matter increased approximately 10%. This unique case study shows that the process of dying affects several imaging markers. These changes need to be taken into account when interpreting post-mortem MRI to make inferences on the in vivo situation.
UR - https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?partnerID=HzOxMe3b&scp=85084813220&origin=inward
UR - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32954270
UR - https://academic.oup.com/braincomms/article/1/1/fcz030/5606709?guestAccessKey=fdf79a91-e244-44d3-9119-faa4702db3ca
U2 - https://doi.org/10.1093/braincomms/fcz030
DO - https://doi.org/10.1093/braincomms/fcz030
M3 - Article
C2 - 32954270
SN - 2632-1297
VL - 1
SP - fcz030
JO - Brain Communications
JF - Brain Communications
IS - 1
M1 - fcz030
ER -