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Abstract:
MRI holds high promise to diagnose Parkinson’s disease (PD) at clinical field strength B0.
However, it remains unclear which B0 optimizes T2* contrast in substantia nigra, which provides
high diagnostic accuracy. We used quantitative MRI at B0=1.5T-9.4T, MR microscopy, and
histochemistry to characterize the field dependence of the major contributors to R2* (1/T2*):
dopaminergic neurons, ferritin, and myelin. R2* maps were similar at B0=3T-9.4T, and all
contributions scaled approximately linearly with B0. Hence, the contrast mechanisms are similar
across currently available MRI field strengths in vivo, which informs the design of novel PD
biomarkers.
