Ingolf Sack1, Kaspar Streitberger1, Uwe Hamhaber2, Dieter Klatt1, Sebastian Papazoglou1, Dagmar Krefting2, Jrgen Braun2
1Radiology, Charit - Universittsmedizin Berlin, Berlin, Germany; 2Medical Informatics, Charit - Universittsmedizin Berlin, Berlin, Germany
Magnetic resonance elastography (MRE) has shown to be the only suitable noninvasive method for determining viscoelastic properties of the living human brain. Brain stiffness and internal friction can change significantly due to neurodegenerative diseases. To assess the potential of MRE for an accurate differentiation and staging of such diseases, the influence of varying brain volumes on the quantification of viscoelastic properties was investigated. Preliminary results show, that no correlation exists between viscoelastic modules determined by MRE and normalized brain volumes. This indicates that MRE reveals independent and new information that is not influenced by brain atrophy.