Jean-Philippe Coutu1,
2, H. Diana Rosas, 13, David H. Salat, 14
1MGH/MIT/HMS
Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Charlestown, MA, United
States; 2Health Sciences and Technology, MIT/Harvard, Cambridge,
MA, United States; 3Neurology, MGH, Harvard Medical School,
Boston, MA, United States; 4Radiology, MGH, Harvard Medical
School, Boston, MA, United States
Diffusion kurtosis imaging and diffusion tensor imaging have been used to investigate microstructural differences in the aging white matter of carriers of APOE allele &[epsilon]4, a risk factor for sporadic Alzheimer's disease. Our study shows that carriers seem to have a greater cross-sectional increase in mean, axial and radial diffusivity and decrease in mean and radial diffusional kurtosis with increasing age, pointing to greater loss of diffusional heterogeneity. These findings could be observed as early as middle age, and might be related to the predisposition of carriers of APOE allele &[epsilon]4 to sporadic Alzheimers disease.