MR imaging of neuromelanin-iron cluster within human postmortem substantia nigra

Abstract

The overall goal of this work was to provide a truth of neuromelanin-sensitive T1 weighted image with magnetization transfer effects and to segment the respective distribution of neuromelanin-iron complex and ferric iron within substantia nigra which are important to monitor Parkinson’s disease. Postmortem MR experiment at 7T and histological validation were performed for six normal midbrain samples. The correlation between T2*/T2 and neuromelanin pigments was highest compared to other MR parameters, especially compared to T2*, which shows specific distributions of paramagnetic molecules. Iron deposits were highly correlated with iron-sensitive T2 and T2* and the correlation was reduced for T2*/T2.