MRI Scan Sessions

MRI has been studied as a diagnostic tool in Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) for decades, with thousands of scans collected from older individuals, both healthy and cognitively impaired, through various population studies. Ongoing advancements continue to refine MRI methods to better capture the neurodegenerative features of AD. As part of the CADRC, the Neuroimaging Core (NIC) is acquiring MRI scans that contribute both to the decades long accrual of information regarding MRI measures that relate to AD and AD-related brain changes as well as newer, advanced MRI methods that use recently developed techniques that can relate to AD and AD-related brain changes.

Examples of scans the NIC is offering are a cadre of scans that have been a part of the large Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI). Thousands of scans assessing issues such as regional brain volumes, tissue microstructure and cerebral blood flow have been acquired over decades in older adults. The NIC has included these scans as a part of our scanning efforts.

Scans that the NIC is doing that are taking advantage of newer, promising techniques assess important AD-related issues such as local brain tissue myelin content (see image), as well as quantitative measures of abnormal tissue development such as calcifications and very small blood vessel leaks called microbleeds. Another technique that has shown promise is one that assesses the integrity of the blood-brain barrier (see image).