In Vivo Assessment of Neurodegeneration in Type C Niemann-Pick Disease by IDEAL-IQ

OBJECTIVE: To noninvasively assess the neurodegenerative changes in the brain of patients with Niemann-Pick type C (NPC) disease by measuring the lesion tissue with the iterative decomposition of water and fat with echo asymmetry and least square estimation-iron quantification (IDEAL-IQ). MATERIALS AND METHODS: Routine brain MRI, IDEAL-IQ and 1H-proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1H-MRS, served as control) were performed on 12 patients with type C Niemann-Pick disease (4 males and 8 females; age range, 15–61 years; mean age, 36 years) and 20 healthy subjects (10 males and 10 females; age range, 20–65 years; mean age, 38 years). The regions with lesion and the normal appearing regions (NARs) of patients were measured and analyzed based on the fat/water signal intensity on IDEAL-IQ and the lipid peak on 1H-MRS. RESULTS: Niemann-Pick type C patients showed a higher fat/water signal intensity ratio with IDEAL-IQ on T2 hyperintensity lesions and NARs (3.7–4.9%, p < 0.05 and 1.8–3.0%, p < 0.05, respectively), as compared to healthy controls (HCs) (1.2–2.3%). After treatment, the fat/water signal intensity ratio decreased (2.2–3.4%), but remained higher than in the HCs (p < 0.05). The results of the 1H-MRS measurements showed increased lipid peaks in the same lesion regions, and the micro-lipid storage disorder of NARs in NPC patients was detectable by IDEAL-IQ instead of 1H-MRS. CONCLUSION: The findings of this study suggested that IDEAL-IQ may be useful as a noninvasive and objective method in the evaluation of patients with NPC; additionally, IDEAL-IQ can be used to quantitatively measure the brain parenchymal adipose content and monitor patient follow-up after treatment of NPC.

Application of 3D FIESTA sequence in magnetic resonance sialography for obstructive salivary diseases / 南方医科大学学报

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To investigate the value of 3D FIESTA sequence in magnetic resonance sialography (MRS) in the diagnosis of obstructive salivary diseases.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Eleven patients with obstructive salivary diseases underwent MRS, and three-dimensional (3D) reconstruction and virtual endoscopic images of the salivary gland ducts were obtained after MRS data post-processing for comparison with those of sialoendoscopy.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The diagnostic accuracy of MRS was 72.7% for obstructive salivary diseases. The virtual endoscopy provided a visual field highly consistent with that by sialoendoscopy.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>MRS is capable of visualizing the tracts of salivary glands. MR virtual endoscopy can provide sufficient morphological and pathological data for preoperative assessment of salivary operations with sialoendoscopy.</p>