Abstract #2408

Biochemical Characteristics in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Detected by 7T MR Spectroscopy

Nazem Atassi ^1,2, Maosheng Xu^3,4, Christina Triantafyllou⁵, Boris Keil ^2,6, Christopher Long⁷, Robert Lawson ^1,2, Paul Cernasov^1,2, Elena Ratti^1,2, Paganoni Sabrina^1,2, Nouha Salibi⁸, Ravi Seethamraju⁹, Bruce Rosen^2,3, Merit Cudkowicz^1,2, and Eva-Maria Ratai^2,3

¹Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, United States, ²A. A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Charlestown, MA, United States, ³Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, United States, ⁴Radiology, First Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang Chinese Medical University, Hangzhou, China, People's Republic of, ⁵Siemens Healthcare, Erlangen, Germany, ⁶Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, United States, ⁷MIT Sloan Neuroeconomics Lab, Cambridge, MA, United States, ⁸Siemens Healthcare, Auburn, AL, United States, ⁹Siemens Healthcare, Charlestown, MA, United States

The purpose of this study was to quantify brain metabolites in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) patients using 7-Tesla MR spectroscopy and investigate how these metabolites correlate with clinical outcomes. Patients with ALS had significantly decreased N-acetylaspartate (NAA), glutamate (Glu) and GABA in the left motor cortex consistent with neuronal injury or loss. NAA/Cr and glutathione/Cr correlated with the revised ALS Functional Rating Scale. Increased pathological reflexes, a clinical marker of upper motor neuron degeneration correlated positively with myo-Inositol/Cr and choline/Cr, and negatively with NAA/Cr. 7T MRS can provide effective biomarkers in ALS patients which correlate well with clinical outcomes.

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