Normal pressure hydrocephalus (NPH) is a neurological disorder characterized by abnormal gait, cognitive decline, and urinary incontinence. The hypothesized role of biomechanics in NPH pathogenesis supports a potential role for magnetic resonance elastography (MRE) in diagnosis and prediction of response to therapy. In this study, MRE was performed in 13 NPH patients before and after shunt placement to test the hypothesis that treatment would reverse NPH-driven changes to the brain’s mechanical properties. We observed that increased stiffness and decreased damping ratio at the vertex were largely reversed by shunting, while periventricular white matter softening was unaffected.
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