MRI of the locus coeruleus and substantia nigra

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MRI of the locus coeruleus and substantia nigra

• Dr Timothy Rittman
• Academic Foundation Year 2

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Locus coeruleus
Substantia nigra
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Imaging of SN
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Sasaki et al
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Effect of MT and SPIR
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Magnetisation transfer

• Neuromelanin
• Macromolecules short T2
• Off resonance radiofrequency pulse
• Transfer of energy from macromolecules
• water
• ?iron
• SPIR
• presaturation pulse
• hidden MT effect

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Method

• T1 MRI
• Repetition time 757ms
• Echo time 9.1ms
• Voxel size 0.47x0.47x2.75mm3
• SPIR
• 7 healthy volunteers
• MT not possible due to SAR limits

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Results - Substantia nigra
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Results - Locus coeruleus
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Conclusion

• The substantia nigra and locus coeruleus are
  visible using T1 weighted imaging with SPIR
• Most likely due to an MT effect
• Sequence is sensitive to neuromelanin
• Specificity remains to be tested

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Thanks to

• Prof Auer
• All in Academic Radiology
• All at Sir Peter Mansfield Magnetic Resonance
  Centre
• Prof Mahida and Prof Hawkey