Open AccessTwo forms of iron as an intrinsic contrast agent in the basal ganglia of PKAN patients
Author(s) -
Dezortova Monika,
Herynek Vit,
Krssak Martin,
Kronerwetter Claudia,
Trattnig Siegfried,
Hajek Milan
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
contrast media & molecular imaging
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.714
H-Index - 50
eISSN - 1555-4317
pISSN - 1555-4309
DOI - 10.1002/cmmi.1482
Subject(s) - ferritin , maghemite , globus pallidus , relaxometry , chemistry , neurodegeneration , basal ganglia , nuclear magnetic resonance , magnetic resonance imaging , psychology , pathology , medicine , neuroscience , hematite , biochemistry , radiology , mineralogy , disease , central nervous system , physics , spin echo
Iron deposits in the human brain can be considered as intrinsic contrast agents for magnetic resonance imaging and are used as markers of neurodegeneration accompanied by brain‐iron accumulation. We studied one of them – panthotenate‐kinase associated neurodegeneration (PKAN) – by using relaxometry at 1.5, 3.0 and 7 T in a group of six patients; we also measured a group of five volunteers for comparison. Based on the magnetic field dependency of antiferromagnetic ferritin and maghemite iron oxide nanoparticle relaxivities, we derived a two‐component model for the description of iron deposits in the globus pallidus of PKAN patients. According to this model, we estimated the iron content in PKAN patients as 391 µg/ml of antiferromagnetic iron (ferritin) and 1.1 µg/ml of ferrimagnetic iron, compared with 178 µg/ml of iron in ferritin found in controls. This two‐component model explains the nonlinear shape of the relaxometric curves in in vivo measurements of the relaxation rates of PKAN patients and is supported by histological findings in the original reports on PKAN patients. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.