A comparative study to assess the flow of meningeal lymphatic vessels in healthy volunteers and brain disorders using the IR-ALADDIN technique

Motivation: The difference in mLVs outflow between healthy control (HC) and brain disorder patients may contribute to toxic protein aggregation and cognitive decline. Goal(s): To demonstrate mLVs structure and flow information of brain disorder patients and compare quantitative flow metrics between HC and patientApproach: We applied IR-ALADDIN to acquire mLVs images around superior sagittal sinus in 20 HCs and 9 patients with various brain disorders such as meningioma, hydrocephalus. Results: The mLVs size was reduced in patients compared to HC with no significant difference in mLVs velocity, leading to overall mLVs flow reduction in patients. Impact: The reduced mLVs flow in brain disorder patients was confirmed using a non-invasive technique. This suggests the possibility to study relationship between brain disorders and waste clearance through the mLVs flow in further studies.