Huan Tan1, Ying
Wu2, 3, Ryan Hutten2, Liu Tian4,
Yi Wang4, Pottumarthi Vara Prasad2, 3, Issam
Awad3, Robert R. Edelman2, 5
1NorthShore
University HealthSystem, Evanston , IL, United States; 2NorthShore
University HealthSystem, Evanston, IL, United States; 3The
University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine, Chicago, IL, United
States; 4Weill Cornell Medical College, New York, NY, United
States; 5Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine,
Chicago, IL, United States
Susceptibility weighted imaging (SWI) was shown to have a high sensitivity for detecting iron-rich cerebral cavernous malformation lesions. However, SWI is a qualitative technique that does not provide a means to evaluate changes in iron distribution within individual lesions. Quantitative susceptibility mapping (QSM) allows quantitative evaluations of intra-lesional susceptibility changes related to leakage of iron-containing blood products. In this study, we performed QSM in nine patients with CCM to characterize lesion burden, and demonstrate the potential of QSM as a quantitative imaging marker for monitoring disease progression and/or responses to treatments.