Using Amide Proton Transfer Imaging to Detect Alzheimer’s Disease Pathology in Mouse Models

Motivation: APTw imaging can detect abnormal proteins associated with AD, but the APT signal is confounded by the NOE signal, which affects the diagnostic performance. Goal(s): We want to separate APT and NOE signals and see if the clean signals are better biomarkers for AD diagnosis than APTw signal. Approach: EMR fitting was performed voxel-wise. Group-based analysis of fitted APT#, NOE# and APTw signal values was performed inside cortex and hippocampus. Results: APT# and NOE# provide better contrast than APTw for AD diagnosis. The impact of NOE may explain the discrepancy between animal and human studies for AD. Impact: The fitted APT# and NOE# signals provide better diagnostic values for AD compared to traditional APTw imaging. The impact of NOE may explain the discrepancy between animal and human studies for AD and is worthy of further study.