Ingolf Sack1,
Axel Lipp2, Radmila Trbojevic1, Friedemann Paul3,
Andreas Fehlner4, Sebastian Hirsch1, Michael Scheel1,
Cornelia Noack2, Jing Guo5, Dieter Klatt1,
Jens Wuerfel3, Juergen Braun6
1Department
of Radiology, Charit - Universittsmedizin Berlin, Berlin, Germany; 2Department
of Neurology, Charit - Universittsmedizin Berlin, Berlin, Germany; 3Neurocure,
Charit - Universittsmedizin Berlin, Berlin, Germany; 4Department
of Radiology, Charit University Medicine, Berlin, Germany; 5Department
of Radiology, Charite - University Medicine Berlin, Berlin, Germany; 6Institute
of Medical Informatics, Charite - University Medicine Berlin, Berlin, Germany
2D-multifrequency MRE and 3D-MRE was used to assess the sensitivity of cerebral viscoelastic properties for discriminating two neurodegenerative disorders with overlapping clinical presentation, but different underlying neuropathology -namely progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP, N=16) and idiopathic Parkinsons disease (PD, N=18) in comparison to healthy controls (N=18). We observed a close negative correlation between MRE constants and measures of clinical severity in PD and PSP. Moreover, we showed that brain viscoelasticity in PSP and PD is differently affected; whereas in PSP all MRE constants are reduced, changes in PD are limited to declining elasticity parameters.