Abstract #2980

Striatal microstructural abnormalities in Huntington’s disease revealed by soma and neurite density imaging

Marco Palombo^1,2, Vasileios Ioakeimidis^1,3, Robin Schubert⁴, Philip Pallmann⁵, Monica E. Busse⁵, Chiara Casella⁶, Cheney J.G. Drew⁵, Anne E. Rosser^7,8, and Claudia Metzler-Baddeley¹

¹Cardiff University Brain Research Imaging Centre, Cardiff University, Cardiff, United Kingdom, ²School of Computer Science and Informatics, Cardiff University, Cardiff, United Kingdom, ³Danish Research Centre for Magnetic Resonance, Department for Radiology and Nuclear Medicine, Copenhagen University Hospital, Copenhagen, Denmark, ⁴George Huntington Institut (GHI), Muenster, Germany, ⁵Centre for Trials Research (CTR), Cardiff University, Cardiff, United Kingdom, ⁶Forensic and Neurodevelopment Sciences, King’s College London, London, United Kingdom, ⁷Cardiff University Brain Repair Group, School of Biosciences, Cardiff University, Cardiff, United Kingdom, ⁸Department of Neurology and Psychological Medicine, School of Medicine, Cardiff University, Cardiff, United Kingdom

Synopsis

Keywords: Other Neurodegeneration, Diffusion Modeling, gray matter; Huntington's Disease

Motivation: Huntington’s disease (HD) is an inherited neurodegenerative condition with no disease-modifying therapies currently available.

Goal(s): To assess whether advanced diffusion MRI (dMRI) modelling of grey matter microstructure can detect striatal degeneration in HD and provide new in-vivo biomarkers for future clinical trials.

Approach: Applied Soma And Neurite Density Imaging (SANDI) to dMRI data at ultra-strong gradients from 56 HD patients and 57 matched controls.

Results: HD patients showed lower apparent soma density and larger soma size in the basal ganglia, consistent with histological evidence of striatal degeneration and glial swelling. Differences in SANDI indices correlated with motor impairments.

Impact: Soma and Neurite Density Imaging (SANDI) is sensitive to striatal neurodegeneration in Huntington’s disease (HD). SANDI indices have the potential for in vivo biomarkers of HD pathology and surrogate clinical outcome measures for disease-modifying therapeutics in future clinical trials.

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