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. 2019 Mar;40(3):408-411.
doi: 10.3174/ajnr.A5962. Epub 2019 Feb 7.

Dynamic Contrast-Enhanced MRI Reveals Unique Blood-Brain Barrier Permeability Characteristics in the Hippocampus in the Normal Brain

J Ivanidze  1 , M Mackay  2   3 , A Hoang  4   3 , J M Chi  5   3 , K Cheng  5   3 , C Aranow  2   3 , B Volpe  6   3 , B Diamond  2   3 , P C Sanelli  7   4   8   3
Affiliations

Dynamic Contrast-Enhanced MRI Reveals Unique Blood-Brain Barrier Permeability Characteristics in the Hippocampus in the Normal Brain

J Ivanidze et al. AJNR Am J Neuroradiol. 2019 Mar.

Abstract

We report a prospective dynamic contrast-enhanced MR imaging analysis of region-specific blood-brain barrier permeability in 5 healthy subjects. By means of standardized postprocessing and ROI sampling methods, the hippocampi revealed significantly elevated area under the dynamic contrast-enhanced curve and significantly increased blood-brain barrier permeability metrics (volume transfer constant and volume in the extravascular extracellular space) from model-based quantitation. These findings suggest unique blood-brain barrier permeability characteristics in the hippocampus, which are concordant with previous animal studies, potentially laying the groundwork for future studies assessing patient populations in which hippocampal pathology plays a role.

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Figures

Fig 1.
Fig 1.
Illustration of ROI placement in a representative subject. ROIs were placed onto coregistered axial T1-weighted images in the following regions: hippocampus (A), orbitofrontal (B), prefrontal (C), and anterior putamen/caudate and posterior putamen/thalamus (D). Mirror ROIs were placed for bilateral sampling. Region-specific DCE curves were generated.
Fig 2.
Fig 2.
DCE curves in healthy control subjects, stratified by brain region. The hippocampi demonstrate statistically significantly higher areas under the curve compared with all other regions, indicating higher BBB permeability under normal conditions.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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