DONATELLI G.

Quantitative Susceptibility Mapping (QSM) can measure iron concentration increase in the primary motor cortex (M1) of patients with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). However, such alteration is confined to only specific regions interested by upper motor neuron pathology; therefore, mean QSM values in the entire M1 have limited diagnostic...

Background: Patterns of initiation and propagation of disease in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) are still partly unknown. Single or multiple foci of neurodegeneration followed by disease diffusion to contiguous or connected regions have been proposed as mechanisms underlying symptom occurrence. Here, we investigated cortical patterns of...

The non-invasive quantification of iron stores via Quantitative Susceptibility Mapping (QSM) could play an important role in the diagnosis and the differential diagnosis of atypical Parkinsonisms. However, the susceptibility (χ) values measured via QSM depend on echo time (TE). This effect relates to the microstructural organization within the...

Objectives: The disruption of the blood-brain barrier (BBB) is a key and early feature in the pathogenesis of demyelinating multiple sclerosis (MS) lesions and has been neuropathologically demonstrated in both active and chronic plaques. The local overt BBB disruption in acute demyelinating lesions is captured as signal hyperintensity in...

Background and purpose: Differential diagnosis between Parkinson's disease (PD) and Atypical Parkinsonisms, mainly Progressive Supranuclear Palsy (PSP) and Multiple System Atrophy (MSA), remains challenging. The low sensitivity of macroscopic findings at imaging might limit early diagnosis. The availability of iron-sensitive MR techniques and...

Background and purpose: In the quest for in vivo diagnostic biomarkers to discriminate Parkinson's disease (PD) from progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) and multiple system atrophy (MSA, mainly p phenotype), many advanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) techniques have been studied. Morphometric indices, such as the Magnetic Resonance...

Purpose: To obtain three-dimensional (3D), quantitative and motion-robust imaging with magnetic resonance fingerprinting (MRF). Methods: Our acquisition is based on a 3D spiral projection k-space scheme. We compared different orderings of trajectory interleaves in terms of rigid motion-correction robustness. In all tested orderings, we...

Voluntary and involuntary patient motion is a major problem for data quality in clinical routine of Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI). It has been thoroughly investigated and, yet it still remains unresolved. In quantitative MRI, motion artifacts impair the entire temporal evolution of the magnetization and cause errors in parameter estimation....

Idiopathic rapid eye movement (REM) sleep behavior disorder (iRBD) is a prodromal stage of α-synucleinopathies, such as Parkinson's disease (PD), which are characterized by the loss of dopaminergic neurons in substantia nigra, associated with abnormal iron load. The assessment of presymptomatic biomarkers predicting the onset of...