Matthew C. Murphy1,
John Huston1, Clifford R. Jack1, Kevin J. Glaser1,
Matthew L. Senjem1, Jun Chen1, Armando Manduca2,
Joel P. Felmlee1, Richard L. Ehman1
1Department
of Radiology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, United States; 2Department
of Physiology and Biomedical Engineering, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, United
States
In this work, we present a novel MR elastography pipeline for measuring regional brain stiffness free of edge-related bias and with high test-retest reliability. Repeatability was measured in 10 healthy volunteers, and the results indicated that typical errors for measuring global and regional brain stiffness were <1% and <2%, respectively. Furthermore, the results show that the mechanical properties of the brain follow a characteristic topography. Considering the lobes of the brain, stiffness is greatest in the occipital lobes, followed by the frontal lobes, the temporal lobes and finally the parietal lobes.