@article{KurzKampfBuschleetal.2015, author = {Kurz, Felix T. and Kampf, Thomas and Buschle, Lukas R. and Schlemmer, Heinz-Peter and Heiland, Sabine and Bendszus, Martin and Ziener, Christian H.}, title = {Microstructural Analysis of Peripheral Lung Tissue through CPMG Inter-Echo Time R2 Dispersion}, series = {PLoS One}, volume = {10}, journal = {PLoS One}, number = {11}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0141894}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-138345}, pages = {e0141894}, year = {2015}, abstract = {Since changes in lung microstructure are important indicators for (early stage) lung pathology, there is a need for quantifiable information of diagnostically challenging cases in a clinical setting, e.g. to evaluate early emphysematous changes in peripheral lung tissue. Considering alveoli as spherical air-spaces surrounded by a thin film of lung tissue allows deriving an expression for Carr-Purcell-Meiboom-Gill transverse relaxation rates R-2 with a dependence on inter-echo time, local air-tissue volume fraction, diffusion coefficient and alveolar diameter, within a weak field approximation. The model relaxation rate exhibits the same hyperbolic tangent dependency as seen in the Luz-Meiboom model and limiting cases agree with Brooks et al. and Jensen et al. In addition, the model is tested against experimental data for passively deflated rat lungs: the resulting mean alveolar radius of RA = 31.46 \(\pm\) 13.15 \(\mu\)m is very close to the literature value (similar to 34 \(\mu\)m). Also, modeled radii obtained from relaxometer measurements of ageing hydrogel foam (that mimics peripheral lung tissue) are in good agreement with those obtained from mu CT images of the same foam (mean relative error: 0.06 \(\pm\) 0.01). The model's ability to determine the alveolar radius and/or air volume fraction will be useful in quantifying peripheral lung microstructure.}, language = {en} } @article{HoffmannPfeilAlfonsoetal.2016, author = {Hoffmann, Angelika and Pfeil, Johannes and Alfonso, Julieta and Kurz, Felix T. and Sahm, Felix and Heiland, Sabine and Monyer, Hannah and Bendszus, Martin and Mueller, Ann-Kristin and Helluy, Xavier and Pham, Mirko}, title = {Experimental Cerebral Malaria Spreads along the Rostral Migratory Stream}, series = {PLoS Pathogens}, volume = {12}, journal = {PLoS Pathogens}, number = {3}, doi = {10.1371/journal.ppat.1005470}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-167434}, pages = {e1005470}, year = {2016}, abstract = {It is poorly understood how progressive brain swelling in experimental cerebral malaria (ECM) evolves in space and over time, and whether mechanisms of inflammation or microvascular sequestration/obstruction dominate the underlying pathophysiology. We therefore monitored in the Plasmodium berghei ANKA-C57BL/6 murine ECM model, disease manifestation and progression clinically, assessed by the Rapid-Murine-Coma-and-Behavioral-Scale (RMCBS), and by high-resolution in vivo MRI, including sensitive assessment of early blood-brain-barrier-disruption (BBBD), brain edema and microvascular pathology. For histological correlation HE and immunohistochemical staining for microglia and neuroblasts were obtained. Our results demonstrate that BBBD and edema initiated in the olfactory bulb (OB) and spread along the rostral-migratory-stream (RMS) to the subventricular zone of the lateral ventricles, the dorsal-migratory-stream (DMS), and finally to the external capsule (EC) and brainstem (BS). Before clinical symptoms (mean RMCBS = 18.5±1) became evident, a slight, non-significant increase of quantitative T2 and ADC values was observed in OB+RMS. With clinical manifestation (mean RMCBS = 14.2±0.4), T2 and ADC values significantly increased along the OB+RMS (p = 0.049/p = 0.01). Severe ECM (mean RMCBS = 5±2.9) was defined by further spread into more posterior and deeper brain structures until reaching the BS (significant T2 elevation in DMS+EC+BS (p = 0.034)). Quantitative automated histological analyses confirmed microglial activation in areas of BBBD and edema. Activated microglia were closely associated with the RMS and neuroblasts within the RMS were severely misaligned with respect to their physiological linear migration pattern. Microvascular pathology and ischemic brain injury occurred only secondarily, after vasogenic edema formation and were both associated less with clinical severity and the temporal course of ECM. Altogether, we identified a distinct spatiotemporal pattern of microglial activation in ECM involving primarily the OB+RMS axis, a distinct pathway utilized by neuroblasts and immune cells. Our data suggest significant crosstalk between these two cell populations to be operative in deeper brain infiltration and further imply that the manifestation and progression of cerebral malaria may depend on brain areas otherwise serving neurogenesis.}, language = {en} } @article{KurzKampfBuschleetal.2016, author = {Kurz, Felix T. and Kampf, Thomas and Buschle, Lukas R. and Schlemmer, Heinz-Peter and Bendszus, Martin and Heiland, Sabine and Ziener, Christian H.}, title = {Generalized moment analysis of magnetic field correlations for accumulations of spherical and cylindrical magnetic perturbers}, series = {Frontiers in Physics}, volume = {4}, journal = {Frontiers in Physics}, issn = {2296-424X}, doi = {10.3389/fphy.2016.00046}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-190604}, year = {2016}, abstract = {In biological tissue, an accumulation of similarly shaped objects with a susceptibility difference to the surrounding tissue generates a local distortion of the external magnetic field in magnetic resonance imaging. It induces stochastic field fluctuations that characteristically influence proton spin dephasing in the vicinity of these magnetic perturbers. The magnetic field correlation that is associated with such local magnetic field inhomogeneities can be expressed in the form of a dynamic frequency autocorrelation function that is related to the time evolution of the measured magnetization. Here, an eigenfunction expansion for two simple magnetic perturber shapes, that of spheres and cylinders, is considered for restricted spin diffusion in a simple model geometry. Then, the concept of generalized moment analysis, an approximation technique that is applied in the study of (non-)reactive processes that involve Brownian motion, allows deriving analytical expressions of the correlation function for different exponential decay forms. Results for the biexponential decay for both spherical and cylindrical magnetized objects are derived and compared with the frequently used (less accurate) monoexponential decay forms. They are in asymptotic agreement with the numerically exact value of the correlation function for long and short times.}, language = {en} } @article{JendeKenderRotheretal.2020, author = {Jende, Johann M. E. and Kender, Zoltan and Rother, Christian and Alvarez-Ramos, Lucia and Groener, Jan B. and Pham, Mirko and Morgenstern, Jakob and Oikonomou, Dimitrios and Hahn, Artur and Juerchott, Alexander and Kollmer, Jennifer and Heiland, Sabine and Kopf, Stefan and Nawroth, Peter P. and Bendszus, Martin and Kurz, Felix T.}, title = {Diabetic Polyneuropathy Is Associated With Pathomorphological Changes in Human Dorsal Root Ganglia: A Study Using 3T MR Neurography}, series = {Frontiers in Neuroscience}, volume = {14}, journal = {Frontiers in Neuroscience}, doi = {10.3389/fnins.2020.570744}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-212459}, year = {2020}, abstract = {Diabetic neuropathy (DPN) is one of the most severe and yet most poorly understood complications of diabetes mellitus. In vivo imaging of dorsal root ganglia (DRG), a key structure for the understanding of DPN, has been restricted to animal studies. These have shown a correlation of decreased DRG volume with neuropathic symptom severity. Our objective was to investigate correlations of DRG morphology and signal characteristics at 3 Tesla (3T) magnetic resonance neurography (MRN) with clinical and serological data in diabetic patients with and without DPN. In this cross-sectional study, participants underwent 3T MRN of both L5 DRG using an isotropic 3D T2-weighted, fat-suppressed sequence with subsequent segmentation of DRG volume and analysis of normalized signal properties. Overall, 55 diabetes patients (66 ± 9 years; 32 men; 30 with DPN) took part in this study. DRG volume was smaller in patients with severe DPN when compared to patients with mild or moderate DPN (134.7 ± 21.86 vs 170.1 ± 49.22; p = 0.040). In DPN patients, DRG volume was negatively correlated with the neuropathy disability score (r = -0.43; 95\%CI = -0.66 to -0.14; p = 0.02), a measure of neuropathy severity. DRG volume showed negative correlations with triglycerides (r = -0.40; 95\%CI = -0.57 to -0.19; p = 0.006), and LDL cholesterol (r = -0.33; 95\%CI = -0.51 to -0.11; p = 0.04). There was a strong positive correlation of normalized MR signal intensity (SI) with the neuropathy symptom score in the subgroup of patients with painful DPN (r = 0.80; 95\%CI = 0.46 to 0.93; p = 0.005). DRG SI was positively correlated with HbA1c levels (r = 0.30; 95\%CI = 0.09 to 0.50; p = 0.03) and the triglyceride/HDL ratio (r = 0.40; 95\%CI = 0.19 to 0.57; p = 0.007). In this first in vivo study, we found DRG morphological degeneration and signal increase in correlation with neuropathy severity. This elucidates the potential importance of MR-based DRG assessments in studying structural and functional changes in DPN.}, language = {en} }