CFIN researcher, Associate professor Jakob Blicher and collegues has just published a new article on: "Short echo-time Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy in ALS, simultaneous quantifcation of glutamate and GABA at 3T" in Scientific Reports.

26.11.2019 | Henriette Blæsild Vuust

Short echo-time Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy in ALS, simultaneous quantifcation of glutamate and GABA at 3T

J. U. Blicher^1,2 
S. F. Eskildsen¹ 
T.G. Stærmose¹ 
A. T. Møller² 
K. Figlewski² 
J. Near³

1. Center of Functionally Integrative Neuroscience (CFIN), Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark.
2. Department of Neurology, Aarhus University Hospital, Aarhus, Denmark.
3. Department of Psychiatry, McGill University, Montreal, Canada.   

Cortical hyperexcitability has been found in early Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) and is hypothesized to be a key factor in pathogenesis. The current pilot study aimed to investigate cortical inhibitory/excitatory balance in ALS using short-echo Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (MRS). Patients sufering from ALS were scanned on a 3T Trio Siemens MR scanner using Spin Echo Full Intensity Acquired Localized (SPECIAL) Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy in primary motor cortex and the occipital lobe. Data was compared to a group of healthy subjects. Nine patients completed the scan. MRS data was of an excellent quality allowing for quantifcation of a range of metabolites of interest in ALS. In motor cortex, patients had Glutamate/GABA and GABA/Cr- ratios comparable to healthy subjects. However, Glutamate/Cr (p=0.002) and the neuronal marker N-acetyl-aspartate (NAA/Cr) (p=0.034) were low, possibly due to grey-matter atrophy, whereas Glutathione/Cr (p=0.04) was elevated. In patients, NAA levels correlated signifcantly with both hand strength (p=0.027) and disease severity (p=0.016). In summary SPECIAL MRS at 3T allows of reliable quantifcation of a range of metabolites of interest in ALS, including both excitatory and inhibitory neurotransmitters. The method is a promising new technique as a biomarker for future studies on ALS pathophysiology and monitoring of disease progression.  

Link to article in Scientific Reports online ...