A Diffusion Kurtosis Imaging (DKI) Based Correlate for Plaque Load in the APPPS1 Mouse Model for Alzheimer's Disease (AD)

Greetje Vanhoutte¹, Sandra Pereson², Bob Asselbergh², Christine Van Broeckhoven², Anne-Marie Van Der Linden¹

In vivo detection of the amyloid deposits in the brain would be beneficial in terms of AD diagnosis and therapy follow-up. The presence of amyloid deposits results in an increasing number of diffusion barriers and higher microstructural complexity. Our DKI results reinforce the hypothesis that DKI is a more sensitive technique than its predecessor DTI to depict changes in brain regions with amyloid deposits. In this in vivo study we observed higher kurtosis values in the brains of APPPS1 mice as compared to littermates.