No evidence for increased brain iron deposition in patients with ischemic white matter disease

作者：Gattringer Thomas; Khalil Michael^*; Langkammer Christian; Jehna Margit; Pichler Alexander; Pinter Daniela; Kneihsl Markus; Petrovic Katja; Ropele Stefan; Fazekas Franz; Enzinger Christian

来源：Neurobiology of Aging, 2016, 45: 61-63.

DOI：10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2016.05.008

• Brain iron
• White matter hyperintensities
• Cerebral small vessel disease
• MRI
• R2*relaxation rate mapping

Besides specific iron accumulation in some neurodegenerative disorders, increased iron deposition in cerebral deep gray matter (DGM) is found in multiple sclerosis. As this is considered largely a white matter (WM) disease, we speculated that patients with more severe ischemic WM hyperintensities (WMH) might also have an increased iron concentration in DGM structures and tested this assumption by using magnetic resonance imaginge-based quantitative R2* relaxometry. WMH severity was measured in 61 patients with acute transient neurological symptoms (mean age: 71.5 +/- 8.3 years) undergoing 3-Tesla magnetic resonance imaging. Despite a 6-year higher age of patients with more severe (i.e., early confluent or confluent) WMH, their DGM R2* rates did not differ from patients with punctate or no WMH. In the globus pallidum, R2* rates were even lower in patients with severe WMH. WMH volume was not correlated with R2* levels in any of the analyzed DGM structures. These findings argue against WM damage per se causing increased DGM iron deposition in multiple sclerosis and suggest no role of iron accumulation in ischemic small vessel disease.

• 出版日期2016-9