%0 Journal Article
%T A rapid multi-parametric quantitative MR imaging method to assess Parkinson's disease: a feasibility study.
%A Duan M
%A Pan R
%A Gao Q
%A Wu X
%A Lin H
%A Yuan J
%A Zhang Y
%A Liu L
%A Tian Y
%A Fu T
%J BMC Med Imaging
%V 24
%N 1
%D 2024 Mar 5
%M 38443786
%F 2.795
%R 10.1186/s12880-024-01229-0
%X <B>BACKGROUND: </B>MULTIPLEX is a single-scan three-dimensional multi-parametric MRI technique that provides 1 mm isotropic T1-, T2*-, proton density- and susceptibility-weighted images and the corresponding quantitative maps. This study aimed to investigate its feasibility of clinical application in Parkinson's disease (PD).<BR><B>METHODS: </B>27 PD patients and 23 healthy control (HC) were recruited and underwent a MULTIPLEX scanning. All image reconstruction and processing were automatically performed with in-house C + + programs on the Automatic Differentiation using Expression Template platform. According to the HybraPD atlas consisting of 12 human brain subcortical nuclei, the region-of-interest (ROI) based analysis was conducted to extract quantitative parameters, then identify PD-related abnormalities from the T1, T2* and proton density maps and quantitative susceptibility mapping (QSM), by comparing patients and HCs.<BR><B>RESULTS: </B>The ROI-based analysis revealed significantly decreased mean T1 values in substantia nigra pars compacta and habenular nuclei, mean T2* value in subthalamic nucleus and increased mean QSM value in subthalamic nucleus in PD patients, compared to HCs (all p values < 0.05 after FDR correction). The receiver operating characteristic analysis showed all these four quantitative parameters significantly contributed to PD diagnosis (all p values < 0.01 after FDR correction). Furthermore, the two quantitative parameters in subthalamic nucleus showed hemicerebral differences in regard to the clinically dominant side among PD patients.<BR><B>CONCLUSIONS: </B>MULTIPLEX might be feasible for clinical application to assist in PD diagnosis and provide possible pathological information of PD patients' subcortical nucleus and dopaminergic midbrain regions.