Aditi Deshpande1, Jordan Elliott1, Nitya Kari1, Bin Jiang2, Patrik Michel3, Nima Toosizadeh1,4, Pouya Tahsili Fahadan5,6, Chelsea Kidwell7, Max Wintermark8, Kaveh Laksari1,9. 1. Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, USA. 2. Department of Radiology, Stanford University, Stanford, California, USA. 3. Department of Neurology, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois, Lausanne, Switzerland. 4. Arizona Center on Aging, Department of Medicine, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, USA. 5. Neuroscience Intensive Care Unit, Medical Critical Care Service and Department of Medical Education, UVA Medicine Inova Campus, Falls Church, Virginia, USA. 6. Department of Neurology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, USA. 7. Department of Neurology, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, USA. 8. Department of Neuroradiology, MD Anderson Center, University of Texas, Houston, Texas, USA. 9. Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, USA.
Abstract
BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Altered brain vasculature is a key phenomenon in several neurologic disorders. This paper presents a quantitative assessment of the anatomical variations in the Circle of Willis (CoW) and vascular morphology in healthy aging, acute ischemic stroke (AIS) and Alzheimer's Disease (AD). METHODS: We used our novel automatic method to segment and extract geometric features of the cerebral vasculature from MR angiography scans of 175 healthy subjects, which were used to create a probabilistic atlas of cerebrovasculature and to study normal aging and intersubject variations in CoW anatomy. Subsequently, we quantified and analyzed vascular alterations in 45AIS and 50 AD patients, two prominent cerebrovascular and neurodegenerative disorders. RESULTS: In the sampled cohort, we determined that the CoW is fully formed in only 35% of healthy adults and found significantly (p < .05) increased tortuosity and fractality, with increasing age and also with disease in both AIS and AD. We also found significantly lower vessel length, volume, and number of branches in AIS patients, as expected. The AD cerebral vessels exhibited significantly smaller diameter and more complex branching patterns, compared to age-matched healthy adults. These changes were significantly heightened (p < .05) among healthy, early onset mild AD, and moderate/severe dementia groups. CONCLUSION: Although our study does not include longitudinal data due to paucity of such datasets, the specific geometric features and quantitative comparisons demonstrate the potential for using vascular morphology as a noninvasive imaging biomarker for neurologic disorders.
BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Altered brain vasculature is a key phenomenon in several neurologic disorders. This paper presents a quantitative assessment of the anatomical variations in the Circle of Willis (CoW) and vascular morphology in healthy aging, acute ischemic stroke (AIS) and Alzheimer's Disease (AD). METHODS: We used our novel automatic method to segment and extract geometric features of the cerebral vasculature from MR angiography scans of 175 healthy subjects, which were used to create a probabilistic atlas of cerebrovasculature and to study normal aging and intersubject variations in CoW anatomy. Subsequently, we quantified and analyzed vascular alterations in 45AIS and 50 AD patients, two prominent cerebrovascular and neurodegenerative disorders. RESULTS: In the sampled cohort, we determined that the CoW is fully formed in only 35% of healthy adults and found significantly (p < .05) increased tortuosity and fractality, with increasing age and also with disease in both AIS and AD. We also found significantly lower vessel length, volume, and number of branches in AIS patients, as expected. The AD cerebral vessels exhibited significantly smaller diameter and more complex branching patterns, compared to age-matched healthy adults. These changes were significantly heightened (p < .05) among healthy, early onset mild AD, and moderate/severe dementia groups. CONCLUSION: Although our study does not include longitudinal data due to paucity of such datasets, the specific geometric features and quantitative comparisons demonstrate the potential for using vascular morphology as a noninvasive imaging biomarker for neurologic disorders.
Authors: Gregory W Albers; Maarten G Lansberg; Stephanie Kemp; Jenny P Tsai; Phil Lavori; Soren Christensen; Michael Mlynash; Sun Kim; Scott Hamilton; Sharon D Yeatts; Yuko Palesch; Roland Bammer; Joe Broderick; Michael P Marks Journal: Int J Stroke Date: 2017-03-24 Impact factor: 5.266
Authors: Li Chen; Mahmud Mossa-Basha; Niranjan Balu; Gador Canton; Jie Sun; Kristi Pimentel; Thomas S Hatsukami; Jenq-Neng Hwang; Chun Yuan Journal: Magn Reson Med Date: 2017-10-17 Impact factor: 4.668
Authors: Jon B Toledo; Steven E Arnold; Kevin Raible; Johannes Brettschneider; Sharon X Xie; Murray Grossman; Sarah E Monsell; Walter A Kukull; John Q Trojanowski Journal: Brain Date: 2013-07-10 Impact factor: 13.501
Authors: Tom van Seeters; Jeroen Hendrikse; Geert Jan Biessels; Birgitta K Velthuis; Willem P T M Mali; L Jaap Kappelle; Yolanda van der Graaf Journal: Neuroradiology Date: 2015-09-10 Impact factor: 2.804