New MRI Technique to Diagnose or Rule out Alzheimer's Disease

 Researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania have come up with a latest, advanced technique against Alzheimer's . The equipment they have developed is called arterial spin labeling (ASL) and is basically an advanced form of Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI ). This shall help in diagnosing and tracking the disease with the added benefit that ,unlike the previous PET scan technique, this does not require exposure to even little amounts of radioactive glucose. Additionally, it is even four times less coslty.

Comparison of arterial spin labeling (ASL) and fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) images. Representative images from control subjects (top row) and AD patients (bottom row) comparing structural magnetic resonance imaging images (T1 and fluid-attenuated inversion recovery), arterial spin labeling magnetic resonance imaging (ASL-MRI), and fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (FDG-PET). All four patients were diagnosed correctly by both readers using both modalities. White arrows highlight areas of concordant hypometabolism on FDG-PET and hypoperfusion on ASL-MRI. (Credit: Alzheimer's & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer's Association)

"In brain tissue, regional blood flow is tightly coupled to regional glucose consumption, which is the fuel the brain uses to function. Increases or decreases in brain function are accompanied by changes in both blood flow and glucose metabolism," explained John A. Detre, MD, professor of Neurology and Radiology at Penn, senior author on the papers, who has worked on ASL-MRI for the past 20 years. "We designed ASL-MRI to allow cerebral blood flow to be imaged noninvasively and quantitatively using a routine MRI scanner."

When a patient is suspected of Alzheimer's , he has to take an initial MRI test in order to diagnose any other causes  , such as a stroke or brain tumor.ASL technique shall be able to turn a routine clinical test (structural MRI) into both a structural and functional test.It can be incorporated into the MRI and will be able to capture 'functional measure'.Only an added 10-20 minutes time is required.

"Given that ASL-MRI is entirely non-invasive, has no radiation exposure, is widely available and easily incorporated into standard MRI routines, it is potentially more suitable for screening and longitudinal disease tracking than FDG-PET," said the Neurology study authors.

Reference: Science Journal