Abstract #2368

Quantitative Susceptibility Mapping (QSM) as a Means to Measure Brain Iron? a Postmortem Validation Study

Christian Langkammer¹,², Ferdinand Schweser³, Nikolaus Krebs², Andreas Deistung³, Walter Goessler⁴, Eva Scheurer², Karsten Sommer³, Gernot Reishofer⁵, Kathrin Yen⁶, Franz Fazekas¹, Juergen R. Reichenbach³, Stefan Ropele¹

¹Department of Neurology, Medical University of Graz, Graz, Austria; ²Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Clinical-Forensic Imaging, Graz, Austria; ³Medical Physics Group, Department of Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology I, Jena University Hospital, Jena, Germany; ⁴Institute of Chemistry - Analytical Chemistry, University of Graz, Graz, Austria; ⁵Department of Radiology, Medical University of Graz, Graz; ⁶Institute of Forensic Medicine, University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany

In this study quantitative susceptibility mapping (qSM) was performed in postmortem brain in situ and correlated with iron concentration as assessed by ICP mass spectroscopy. A strong linear correlation between iron concentration and magnetic susceptibility was found which became significantly weaker when considering white matter only. These results suggest that qSM is a reliable tool to study iron levels in gray matter. Iron mapping in white matter seems to be less reliable unless the magnetic susceptibility of myelin and its orientation is not accounted for.