Abstract #0135

Investigating microstructural heterogeneity of white matter hyperintensities in Alzheimer’s disease using single-shell 3-tissue constrained spherical deconvolution

Remika Mito^1,2, Thijs Dhollander¹, David Raffelt¹, Ying Xia³, Olivier Salvado³, Amy Brodtmann^1,2, Christopher Rowe^4,5, Victor Villemagne^4,5, and Alan Connelly^1,2

¹Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health, Melbourne, Australia, ²Florey Department of Neuroscience and Mental Health, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia, ³The Australian eHealth Research Centre, CSIRO Health and Biosecurity, Brisbane, Australia, ⁴Department of Medicine, Austin Health, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia, ⁵Department of Molecular Imaging & Therapy, Centre for PET, Austin Health, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia

White matter hyperintensities (WMH) observed on FLAIR MRI are highly prevalent in Alzheimer’s disease. Although often associated with cognitive decline, such associations are highly variable, likely due to the underlying pathological heterogeneity within these lesions. Here, we explore this potential heterogeneity in vivo in an Alzheimer’s disease cohort, by investigating relative tissue fractions obtained using single-shell 3-tissue constrained spherical deconvolution (SS3T-CSD). We show distinguishable tissue profiles of lesions based on classification as periventricular or deep, and additionally show heterogeneity within lesions, thus highlighting the pitfalls of binary classification of WMH, and the value of investigating their underlying diffusional properties.

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