Abstract #1415

Correlating neurite density and synaptic density in the human brain in vivo with diffusion-weighted PET-MR

Daan Christiaens^1,2, Thomas Vande Casteele^2,3,4, Maarten Laroy^2,4, Margot Van Cauwenberge^2,3,4, Jan Van den Stock^3,4, Filip Boeckaert^3,4, Stefan Sunaert^2,5,6, Mathieu Vandenbulcke^3,4, Frederik Maes^1,2, and Louise Emsell^2,3,4,5

¹Department of Electrical Engineering, ESAT/PSI, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium, ²Medical Imaging Research Center, University Hospitals Leuven, Leuven, Belgium, ³Geriatric Psychiatry, UPC KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium, ⁴Leuven Brain Institute, Department of Neurosciences, Neuropsychiatry, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium, ⁵Department of Imaging & Pathology, Translational MRI, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium, ⁶Radiology, University Hospitals Leuven, Leuven, Belgium

Synopsis

¹¹C-UCB-J PET offers a unique imaging modality to map synaptic density in the human brain in vivo with high specificity. Here, we investigate its correlation with several diffusion MRI metrics and microstructure model parameters in diffusion-weighted PET-MR. We report moderate negative correlation of ¹¹C-UCB-J uptake with measures of anisotropy, consistent with a hypothesis that higher synaptic density is associated with a more disorganised neurite configuration. We also find weak positive correlation to the intra-axonal signal fraction in cortical grey matter. As such, ¹¹C-UCB-J PET-MR can further the interpretation and in vivo validation of more advanced microstructure models of grey matter.

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