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Abstract #2878

Regional Brain Stiffness Changes Across the Alzheimer's Disease Spectrum

Matthew C. Murphy1, John Huston1, Clifford R. Jack1, Kevin J. Glaser1, David T. Jones2, Matthew L. Senjem1, Armando Manduca3, Joel P. Felmlee1, Richard L. Ehman1

1Department of Radiology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, United States; 2Department of Neurology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, United States; 3Department of Physiology and Biomedical Engineering, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, United States

Building on a previous finding that global brain stiffness is a novel biomarker of Alzheimers disease (AD), the purpose of this work was to measure regional brain stiffness across the full AD spectrum (i.e. cognitively normal → mild cognitive impairment → AD dementia). Using a novel MR elastography pipeline, this work demonstrates that changes in brain stiffness follow the known topography of AD (frontal, parietal and temporal lobes significantly affected). Furthermore, brain stiffness may provide unique insights into the temporal dynamics of AD progression as it was shown to change non-monotonically with respect to disease severity.

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Keywords

accompany activation affect affected alterations assay atlas axial beginning biomedical bottom brain candidate cerebellum characterized classification clinic clinical cognitive cognitively common consent contain control controls correlated cortices course cubic decreased deep default dementia diagnosis disease downstream earlier encoding established etiology example excluded existed finding frontal full function functional generated global gradient gray hand highly hypothesize impairment include included indicate indicated informed isotropic john just knots known load lobes made magnitude matched matrix mayo measure measured measuring memory metrics mild minutes mode modeled modified monotonic motion motor network nonlinear normalized notably novel nuclei occipital optimized panel parietal period physiology plasticity plot plotted plotting positive primary progress pulse radiology rank ranked reason refocusing regional registered related relationship reported resolution respect restricted sampling scanned sensory severity side significantly slices spectrum splines stiffness strip structural subject subjects subsequent summarized summary task temporal therapies thick tools topography tracts typically understanding variable versus vibration volumes warping white