Abstract #3741

Diffusion Kurtosis Imaging of the Motor Cortex in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis

Thomas Welton¹, Fraser Callaghan¹, Jerome J Maller², Matthew Middione³, R Marc Lebel⁴, Ek T Tan⁵, Dominic B Rowe⁶, Ajit Shankar³, and Stuart M Grieve^1,7

¹Sydney Translational Imaging Laboratory, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia, ²GE Healthcare, Richmond, Australia, ³GE Healthcare, Palo Alto, CA, United States, ⁴GE Healthcare, Calgary, AB, Canada, ⁵GE Global Research, Niskayuna, NY, United States, ⁶MND Research Centre, Sydney, Australia, ⁷Department of Radiology, Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Sydney, Australia

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is characterised by degeneration of the motor neurons. Diffusion kurtosis imaging (DKI) may be a suitable biomarker for neuronal injury in ALS. We imaged 30 people with ALS and 63 controls with a 140-direction DKI protocol and explored group differences diffusion and kurtosis scalar values within the motor cortex. Our preliminary data show that significant microstructural changes are measurable by DKI in people with early ALS. DKI may represent a viable biomarker of early ALS progression.

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