Quantifying brain iron deposition in patients with Parkinson's disease using quantitative susceptibility mapping, R2 and R2

Abstract Purpose To evaluate the sensitivity and specificity of quantitative magnetic resonance (MR) iron mapping including R2, R2* and magnetic susceptibility to differentiate patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) from healthy controls. Materials and Methods Thirty (30) healthy controls (HC) (64 ± 7 years old) and 20 patients with idiopathic PD (66 ± 8 years old) were studied using a 3 T MR imaging scanner. R2 maps were generated from GRASE sequence while R2*, and quantitative susceptibility mapping (QSM) were obtained from a conventional multi-echo gradient-echo sequence. R2, R2* and relative susceptibility (Δχ) values of structures in the basal ganglia were measured for each patient and control. An analysis of sensitivity and specificity and unpaired t-test was applied to the two groups. Results A significant difference (p  Conclusion The QSM map was the most sensitive quantitative technique for detecting a significant increase of iron for PD. The highest significant difference between controls and patients was found in the substantia nigra pars compacta using QSM.