Nikolaus
Krebs1, Christian Langkammer, 12, Walter Goessler3,
Franz Fazekas2, Kathrin Yen1, Stefan Ropele2,
Eva Scheurer1
1Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for
Clinical-Forensic Imaging, Graz, Austria; 2Department of
Neurology, Medical University of Graz, Graz, Austria; 3Institute
of Chemistry - Analytical Chemistry, University of Graz, Graz, Austria
Certain
neurodegenerative diseases are associated with increased iron concentration
in specified brain regions. To provide an up to date basis for validation of
MR-based assessment of brain iron content, iron concentrations in selected
grey and white matter regions of postmortem human brains were determined
using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICPMS) and compared to corresponding
susceptibility weighted images (SWI). Measured iron concentrations were in
good agreement in most brain regions with values published before. Visual
comparison of the measured results with contrast in SWI showed that areas
with high iron content correlate well with hypointense regions.