Manganese (Mn) is a neurotoxin that can lead to symptoms similar to Parkinson’s disease. Welders exposed to welding fume can accumulate quantities of Mn in their brain eliciting T1 contrast effects. Mn exposure estimates are useful for determining a welder’s risk for symptoms, but quantifying Mn in the brain would be more beneficial. While R1 (1/T1) is proportional to local Mn accumulation, the relationship is likely non-linear, complicating interpretation of R1. Therefore, we propose a support vector machine model using whole-brain R1 maps to predict classes as determined by group, Mn air exposure, and excess brain Mn accumulation.
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