Quantitative Susceptibility Mapping (QSM) of the Motor Cortex as a Potential Biomarker in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS)

Tian Liu¹, ², Andrew D. Schweitzer¹, Karen S. Zheng¹, Stephen Seedial¹, Alexander Shtilbans³, Dale J. Lange³, Yi Wang¹, Apostolos John Tsirouis¹

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is an devastating disease yet there is currently no quantitative laboratory, imaging, or electrophysiological test that correlates with disease severity. In this study, we applied quantitative susceptibility mapping to ALS patients, and compared their susceptibility values in motor cortex to control subjects without ALS. Statistically significant increase in susceptibility was found in ALS patients, suggesting that QSM has the potential to be the first quantitative imaging biomarker for patients with ALS.