Harpreet Hyare1, Po-Wah So2,
Caroline Powell1,
1MRC Prion Unit, UCL Institute of
Neurology, London, United Kingdom; 2Institute of Psychiatry,
London, United Kingdom; 3National Hospital for Neurology and
Neurosurgery; 4Department of Brain Repair and Rehabilitation, UCL
Institute of Neurology, London, United Kingdom
Magnetic
resonance microscopy at 9.4T with in plane resolution of 58 microns can
depict amyloid plaques composed of the abnormal prion protein in the cortex
of patients with vCJD. Formalin fixed
cortical samples, passively stained with gadoteric acid and scanned with a
high resolution 3D gradient echo sequence (TR 20, TE 5, 16 averages)
demonstrate prion protein (PrP) plaques as hypointense foci in the cortex
which correspond to PrP immunostaining.
As high field strength magnets enter clinical practice, in vivo MRI of
the cortex may improve diagnosis and monitoring of vCJD.