Abstract #0411

Vascular-water-exchange imaging to detect blood-brain barrier breakdown in Alzheimer’s disease without contrast agent

Yifan Zhang^1,2, Yue Wang^3,4, Zhaoqing Li^1,2, Shiping Li^3,4, Yi-Cheng Hsu⁵, Jiong Shi^3,4, Binbin Sui³, and Ruiliang Bai^1,2

¹College of Biomedical Engineering and Instrument Science, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China, ²School of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China, ³National Clinical Research Center for Neurological Diseases, Beijing Tiantan Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China, ⁴Department of Neurology, Beijing Tiantan Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China, ⁵MR Collaboration, Siemens Healthcare, Shanghai, China

Synopsis

Keywords: Alzheimer's Disease, Alzheimer's Disease, Blood-brain barrier

Blood-brain-barrier (BBB) impairment is an important pathophysiological process in Alzheimer’s disease (AD). However, most neuroimaging methods assessing BBB function require contrast agent injection, limiting the methods’ application. Vascular-water-exchange imaging (VEXI), a version of filter-exchange imaging (FEXI), is a contrast-agent-free method assessing BBB permeability to water. We quantitatively measured BBB permeability using VEXI in normal subjects, mild cognitive impairment patients, and AD patients and found BBB breakdown occurred specifically in the hippocampus, worsening with disease progression. In addition, BBB permeability to water showed a significant correlation with cognitive impairment. Therefore, VEXI might be a potential contrast-agent-free neuroimaging method.

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