Differences in the Regional T1/T2-Weighted Ratio Index Between Healthy Controls and Patients With Progressive Supranuclear Palsy

Background: Progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) is a four-repeat tauopathy, and the differentiation of PSP from other neurodegenerative disorders is a common clinical problem. We applied a T1-/T2-weighted ratio imaging technique based on standard clinical MRI to investigate PSP-related changes in neuroimaging data. Method: Twenty patients with PSP and 34 healthy participants underwent an examination to obtain T1- and T2-weighted images at our hospital. We retrospectively computed each subject's T1/T2-weighted ratio index to use as a proxy for the brain's myelin content, and we analyzed the differences in the index values between the PSP and control groups. Results: Our analysis revealed the precise differences in the T1/T2-weighted ratio index between the PSP and control groups and demonstrated that the patients with PSP showed significant reductions of the T1/T2-weighted ratio index in the midbrain, posterior commissure, caudate, thalamus, and bilateral insulae compared to the healthy controls. Conclusions: These results show that the T1/T2-weighted ratio approach is useful to distinguish patients with PSP from healthy subjects.