Abstract #4121

Fibre-specific white matter changes in Alzheimer's disease: novel insights from Fixel-Based Analysis

Remika Mito^1,2, David Raffelt¹, Thijs Dhollander¹, David N Vaughan^1,2,3, Olivier Salvado⁴, Amy Brodtmann^1,2,5, Christopher Rowe^6,7, Victor L Villemagne^2,6,7, and Alan Connelly^1,2

¹Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, ²Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, ³Department of Neurology, Austin Health, Victoria, Australia, ⁴Health & Biosecurity, CSIRO, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, ⁵Eastern Clinical Research Unit, Box Hill Hospital, Monash University, Victoria, Australia, ⁶Department of Medicine, Austin Health, University of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, ⁷Department of Molecular Imaging & Therapy, Centre for PET, Austin Health, Heidelberg, Victoria, Australia

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is characterised by extensive white matter disruption, however voxel-based studies have been unable to provide fibre-specific insight into how this alters brain connectivity. Here, we applied fixel-based analysis (FBA) to diffusion MRI data to investigate changes in AD and mild cognitive impairment (MCI) patients. AD patients exhibited significant reductions in both fibre density and cross-section across multiple fibre tracts, while significant decreases in MCI were only evident in the posterior cingulum and uncinate, upon tract-of-interest analysis. This work demonstrates the value of FBA in identifying both macroscopic and microscopic changes to specific fibre pathways in the investigation of AD.

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