Post-mortem 1.5T MR quantification of regular anatomical brain structures

Wolf-Dieter Zech, Anna-Lena Hottinger, Nicole Schwendener, Frederick Schuster, Anders Persson, Marcel J. Warntjes, Christian Jackowski

Recently, post-mortem MR quantification has been introduced to the field of post-mortem magnetic resonance imaging. By usage of a particular MR quantification sequence, T1 and T2 relaxation times and proton density (PD) of tissues and organs can be quantified simultaneously. The aim of the present basic research study was to assess the quantitative T1, T2, and PD values of regular anatomical brain structures for a 1.5T application and to correlate the assessed values with corpse temperatures. In a prospective study, 30 forensic cases were MR-scanned with a quantification sequence prior to autopsy. Body temperature was assessed during MR scans. In synthetically calculated T1, T2, and PD-weighted images, quantitative T1, T2 (both in ms) and PD (in %) values of anatomical structures of cerebrum (Group 1: frontal gray matter, frontal white matter, thalamus, internal capsule, caudate nucleus, putamen, and globus pallidus) and brainstem/cerebellum (Group 2: cerebral crus, substantia nigra, red nucleus, pons, cerebellar hemisphere, and superior cerebellar peduncle) were assessed. The investigated brain structures of cerebrum and brainstem/cerebellum could be characterized and differentiated based on a combination of their quantitative T1, T2, and PD values. MANOVA testing verified significant differences between the investigated anatomical brain structures among each other in Group 1 and Group 2 based on their quantitative values. Temperature dependence was observed mainly for T1 values, which were slightly increasing with rising temperature in the investigated brain structures in both groups. The results provide a base for future computer-aided diagnosis of brain pathologies and lesions in post-mortem magnetic resonance imaging.