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Abstract #0690

Decreased Brain Stiffness in Alzheimer's Disease Determined by Magnetic Resonance Elastography

Matthew C. Murphy1, John Huston, III1, Clifford R. Jack, Jr. 1, Kevin J. Glaser1, Armando Manduca1, Joel P. Felmlee1, Richard L. Ehman1

1Department of Radiology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, USA


MRE is a technique for noninvasively measuring tissue stiffness. The purpose of this work was to assess reproducibility of a 3D MRE exam of the brain in 10 healthy volunteers, and to use the 3D brain MRE exam to study the effects of Alzheimers disease (AD) in 7 subjects with probable AD, 14 age- and gender-matched PIB- controls and 7 age- and gender-matched PIB+ controls. MRE detected a significant decrease in brain stiffness in subjects with AD compared to both control groups. This decrease in stiffness likely reflects a loss of normal cytoarchitecture of the brain parenchyma due to AD.

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