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Abstract #2404

Investigating the influence of post-mortem interval on diffusion anisotropy of whole human brains

Nina Lüthi1,2, Francisco Javier Fritz1,2,3, Björn Fricke1, Tobias Streubel1, Ora Ohana4, Thomas Sauvigny5, Herbert Mushumba6, Klaus Püschel6, and Siawoosh Mohammadi1,2,3
1Department of Systems Neurosciences, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany, 2MR Physics Group, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin, Germany, 3Department of Neurophysics, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany, 4Institute of Molecular and Cellular Cognition, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany, 5Department of Neurosurgery, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany, 6Department of Legal Medicine, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany

Synopsis

Keywords: DWI/DTI/DKI, Ex-Vivo Applications, Post-mortem interval, sample size, fixation, human brain

Motivation: The ISMRM-Diffusion-Study-Group recommends a post-mortem interval (PMI) under six hours to avoid degeneration in ex-vivo tissue for validation of microstructure parameters estimated using preclinical MRI. Fractional anisotropy (FA) deviation from the in-vivo value serves as a quality indicator.[1]

Goal(s): Investigating the influence of PMI and tissue size on FA.

Approach: Five human whole-brains (PMI 15-24h) and a temporal-lobe (TL) specimen (PMI 2h) were examined with diffusion MRI (dMRI) before and after fixation.

Results: The FA of the unfixed whole-brain samples didn’t show differences to the in-vivo values, but between unfixed and fixed states. The FA of the TL specimen was unaffected during fixation.

Impact: For the PMIs examined here, myelin decomposition may not significantly affect FA from dMRI of unfixed post-mortem specimens. However, it can affect whole-brain samples during immersion fixation - an effect that may be mitigated by using smaller samples.

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Abstract

Keywords