A Comparative Analysis of Different MRI Sequences Dedicated for Invivo Detection of Mineralization in a Single Large Cohort of Progressive Supranuclear Palsy and Healthy Controls.

Iron plays an important role in normal brain metabolism. Increase in brain iron is a part of the normal brain development, but an excessive deposition of brain iron may be a risk factor for degenerative diseases. At the clinical setting, there are two major issues of controversy. One is that of interpreting the varying degree of mineralization, which occurs with normal aging, which is physiological from pathological mineralization. The second issue is interpretating and drawing a single conclusion, as to whether mineralization is occurring or not from the various MRI sequences available. Various sequences for detecting iron in the brain are available such as T2-weighted, T2* weighted gradient-echo [2D GRE gradient-echo], and VENOBOLD (3D GRE gradient echo) sequences. In addition, for quantitative imaging, T2* relaxometry (mFFE PHILIPS) sequences are available. There are no studies that have compared the mineralization sequences in a single cohort of healthy controls and in patient population such as progressive supranuclear palsy as in our study. It was noted that the quantitative method such as T2* relaxometry was the most sensitive sequence to detect mineralization followed by other conventional sequences.