Can MRI be used to image Aβ in the human brain at 3T?

Motivation: Diagnosis of AD relies on the imaging of Aβ plaques in the brain using PET with injection of radiotracers and brain morphological changes using MRI, which involves two imaging modalities with exorbitantly high costs. Goal(s): Developing an affordable, single modality MRI method for imaging amyloid beta plaques in human brains at 3T. Approach: We applied a previously developed MRI method (multiple-echo frequency‐domain image contrast (MEFIC)) that can improve SNR while optimizing T2* weighting. Results: We demonstrated the feasibility for imaging Aβ-plaques with MEFIC in the human brain at 3T. Impact: This research develops an MRI method to image the Aβ load in the human brain in vivo, which allows us to detect and quantify the pathological changes and associated neurodegeneration and functional deficits with a single image modality.