In vivo imaging of tau pathology using magnetic resonance imaging textural analysis
Colgan, Niall Ganeshan, Balaji Harrison, Ian F. Ismail, Ozama Holmes, Holly E. Wells, Jack A. Powell, Nick M. O'Callaghan, James M. O'Neill, Michael J. Murray, Tracey K.
Colgan, Niall
Ganeshan, Balaji
Harrison, Ian F.
Ismail, Ozama
Holmes, Holly E.
Wells, Jack A.
Powell, Nick M.
O'Callaghan, James M.
O'Neill, Michael J.
Murray, Tracey K.
Repository DOI
Publication Date
2017-11-06
Type
Article
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Citation
Colgan, Niall; Ganeshan, Balaji; Harrison, Ian F. Ismail, Ozama; Holmes, Holly E.; Wells, Jack A.; Powell, Nick M.; O'Callaghan, James M.; O'Neill, Michael J.; Murray, Tracey K.; Ahmed, Zeshan; Collins, Emily C.; Johnson, Ross A.; Groves, Ashley; Lythgoe, Mark F. (2017). In vivo imaging of tau pathology using magnetic resonance imaging textural analysis. Frontiers in Neuroscience 11 ,
Abstract
Background: Non-invasive characterization of the pathological features of Alzheimer's disease (AD) could enhance patient management and the development of therapeutic strategies. Magnetic resonance imaging texture analysis (MRTA) has been used previously to extract texture descriptors from structural clinical scans in AD to determine cerebral tissue heterogeneity. In this study, we examined the potential of MRTA to specifically identify tau pathology in an AD mouse model and compared the MRTA metrics to histological measures of tau burden. Methods: MRTA was applied to 12 weighted high-resolution MR images of nine 8.5-month-old rTg4510 tau pathology (TG) mice and 16 litter matched wild-type PT) mice. MRTA comprised of the filtration-histogram technique, where the filtration step extracted and enhanced features of different sizes (fine, medium, and coarse texture scales), followed by quantification of texture using histogram analysis (mean gray level intensity, mean intensity, entropy, uniformity, skewness, standard-deviation, and kurtosis). MRTA was applied to manually segmented regions of interest (ROl) drawn within the cortex, hippocampus, and thalamus regions and the level of tau burden was assessed in equivalent regions using histology. Results: Texture parameters were markedly different between WT and TG in the cortex (E, p < 0.01, K, p < 0.01), the hippocampus (K, p < 0.05) and in the thalamus (K, p, 0.01). In addition, we observed significant correlations between histological measurements of tau burden and kurtosis in the cortex, hippocampus and thalamus. Conclusions: MRTA successfully differentiated WT and TG in brain regions with varying degrees of tau pathology (cortex, hippocampus, and thalamus) based on T2 weighted MR images. Furthermore, the kurtosis measurement correlated with histological measures of tau burden. This initial study indicates that MRTA may have a role in the early diagnosis of AD and the assessment of tau pathology using routinely acquired structural MR images.
Funder
Publisher
Frontiers Media SA
Publisher DOI
10.3389/fnins.2017.00599
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Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Ireland