MRI Evaluation of Lateral Geniculate Body in Normal Aging Brain Using Quantitative Susceptibility Mapping

Objective To investigate the changes of lateral geniculate body （LGB） in the normal aging brain using quantitative susceptibility mapping （QSM） technique. Methods Magnetic resonance （MR） phase and magnitude images were acquired from enhanced gradient echo T2 star weighted angiography sequence with 16 echoes on 3.0T MR system using the head coil with 32 channels. Morphology Enabled Dipole Inversion （MEDI） method was applied for QSM, and the susceptibility value of LGB was measured by region of interest （ROI） drawn manually on three orthogonal planes. Results LGB of the middle-aged group had a higher susceptibility value （0.16±0.05 ppm） than that of the youth group （0.12±0.05 pprn） and elderly group （0.13±0.03 ppm） （all P〈0.05）. Partial correlation analysis demonstrated that there was significantly positive correlation between susceptibility value and age in the youth group （r=0.71, P〈0.05）. Conclusion LGB could clearly be identified on QSM in the brain in vivo.