Jeffrey Luci, Ph.D., used a common industrial chemistry technique to help MR better image Alzheimer's disease.

Jeffrey Luci, Ph.D., would be the first to admit he is having a busy year. Having attained a faculty position at Vanderbilt University at the end of his National Institutes of Health research fellowship, the former University of Iowa chemistry grad student is now immersed in preparations for his forthcoming wedding. The list of last-minute details may seem endless, but at least the ring is taken care of, thanks to his $1000 award from the RSNA.

While Luci's heart may have ruled where he spent his winnings, matters more cerebral led to his 2005 RSNA Research Trainee Prize. His award-winning study evaluated the capacity of T1ρ-weighted MRI to detect amyloid plaques in a mouse model of Alzheimer's disease. This imaging technique, which provides tunable T2-like contrast via modulation of spinlock power, is used widely in industrial chemistry. It could further experimental and clinical research into neurological conditions such as Alzheimer's.

The study pitted T1ρ-weighted imaging against T2-weighted MRI, the current gold standard for imaging Alzheimer's plaques. Spin-echo T2-weighted MRI generally yields high-resolution images of amyloid plaques, given sufficient time. Acquisition times can be four to eight times shorter if fast spin-echo sequences are used, but image blurring results.

“The blurring is of the order of the size of the plaques, so you can't see them very well,” said Luci, now an instructor in radiology and radiological sciences at Vanderbilt. “With T1ρ-weighted MRI, we acquire data in a different order, so there is a narrower blurring function associated with fast spin-echo imaging.”

The comparison test was conducted on four male transgenic mice bred to grow amyloid plaques spontaneously. The animals were imaged at 9.4T with T2- and T1ρ-weighted MRI using spin-echo and fast-spin echo sequences. Results showed that hypointense signals from the amyloid plaques were seen best on T1ρ-weighted spin-echo MRI. Fast spin-echo T1ρ-weighted imaging had comparable clarity to spin-echo T2-weighted MRI.

MRI of the same brain slice of an aged transgenic mouse. A: T2-weighted spin-echo image acquired in 42.7 minutes. B: T1ρ-weighted fast spin-echo image acquired in 10.7 minutes. Note more conspicuous appearance of hypointense spots along the subcortical rim.