Ryan Hutten1,
Nadia Abbasi1, Michael Mercury2, Victoria Braund2,
Zoran Grujic3, Ying Wu1, 4
1Department
of Radiology, NorthShore University Health System, Evanston, IL, United
States; 2Department of Psychiatry, NorthShore University Health
System, Glenview, IL, United States; 3Department of Internal
Medicine, University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine, Chicago, IL,
United States; 4Department of Radiology, The University of Chicago
Pritzker School of Medicine, Chicago, IL, United States
Previous imaging studies of Alzheimer's disease have shown regional abnormalities in patients using both diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and magnetization transfer ratio (MTR). We build upon the work of previous studies by combining two commonly used methods into one automated process. In this study, we utilize an autoregional method to isolate specific brain regions, and then perform an autotractography algorithm to target white matter tracts associated with the included brain regions. This procedure detects previously unseen MTR differences between the white matter fiber tracts of AD patients and healthy controls.
Keywords