Associations of quantitative susceptibility mapping with cortical atrophy and brain connectome in Alzheimer's disease: A multi-parametric study
Haojie Chen,
Aocai Yang,
Weijie Huang,
Lei Du,
Bing Liu,
Kuan Lv,
Jixin Luan,
Pianpian Hu,
Amir Shmuel,
Ni Shu,
Guolin Ma
Affiliations
Haojie Chen
State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning & IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China; BABRI Centre, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China; Beijing Key Laboratory of Brain Imaging and Connectomics, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China
Aocai Yang
Department of Radiology, China-Japan Friendship Hospital, Beijing 100029, China; China-Japan Friendship Hospital (Institute of Clinical Medical Sciences), Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, China
Weijie Huang
State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning & IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China; BABRI Centre, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China; Beijing Key Laboratory of Brain Imaging and Connectomics, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China
Lei Du
Department of Radiology, Key Laboratory of Carcinogenesis and Translational Research (Ministry of Education), Peking University Cancer Hospital & Institute, Beijing, China
Bing Liu
Department of Radiology, China-Japan Friendship Hospital, Beijing 100029, China; China-Japan Friendship Hospital (Institute of Clinical Medical Sciences), Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, China
Kuan Lv
Department of Radiology, China-Japan Friendship Hospital, Beijing 100029, China
Jixin Luan
Department of Radiology, China-Japan Friendship Hospital, Beijing 100029, China; China-Japan Friendship Hospital (Institute of Clinical Medical Sciences), Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, China
Pianpian Hu
Department of Radiology, China-Japan Friendship Hospital, Beijing 100029, China
Amir Shmuel
McConnell Brain Imaging Centre, Montreal Neurological Institute, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada; Departments of Neurology and Neurosurgery, Physiology, and Biomedical Engineering, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada
Ni Shu
State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning & IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China; BABRI Centre, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China; Beijing Key Laboratory of Brain Imaging and Connectomics, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China; Corresponding author at: State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning & IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China.
Guolin Ma
Department of Radiology, China-Japan Friendship Hospital, Beijing 100029, China; China-Japan Friendship Hospital (Institute of Clinical Medical Sciences), Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, China; Corresponding author at: Department of Radiology, China-Japan Friendship Hospital, Beijing 100029, China.
Aberrant susceptibility due to iron level abnormality and brain network disconnections are observed in Alzheimer's disease (AD), with disrupted iron homeostasis hypothesized to be linked to AD pathology and neuronal loss. However, whether associations exist between abnormal quantitative susceptibility mapping (QSM), brain atrophy, and altered brain connectome in AD remains unclear. Based on multi-parametric brain imaging data from 30 AD patients and 26 healthy controls enrolled at the China-Japan Friendship Hospital, we investigated the abnormality of the QSM signal and volumetric measure across 246 brain regions in AD patients. The structural and functional connectomes were constructed based on diffusion MRI tractography and functional connectivity, respectively. The network topology was quantified using graph theory analyses. We identified seven brain regions with both reduced cortical thickness and abnormal QSM (p < 0.05) in AD, including the right superior frontal gyrus, left superior temporal gyrus, right fusiform gyrus, left superior parietal lobule, right superior parietal lobule, left inferior parietal lobule, and left precuneus. Correlations between cortical thickness and network topology computed across patients in the AD group resulted in statistically significant correlations in five of these regions, with higher correlations in functional compared to structural topology. We computed the correlation between network topological metrics, QSM value and cortical thickness across regions at both individual and group-averaged levels, resulting in a measure we call spatial correlations. We found a decrease in the spatial correlation of QSM and the global efficiency of the structural network in AD patients at the individual level. These findings may provide insights into the complex relationships among QSM, brain atrophy, and brain connectome in AD.
