Projects

ASL-BIDS

Brain Imaging Data Structure (BIDS) describes a simple and easy-to-adopt way of organising neuroimaging and behavioral data.

ASPIRE

ASPIRE will create a novel imaging biomarker for dementia for diagnosis support. Signs of Alzheimer’s (AD) will be detectable at early stages before clinical manifestation. The solution is based on the non-invasive magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technique “Arterial Spin Labelling” (ASL) combined with scanner calibration, physiological atlas comparison, and artificial intelligence (AI)-based diagnostic support. The technique will simplify the diagnostic process, reduce cost and patient risk .

CErebrovascular age

Vascular pathology is a major and potentially treatable cause of dementia (either alone or in combination with Alzheimer's Disease). Yet, it is unclear why some patients with cerebrovascular disease develop dementia, while others do not. The use of our Cerebrovascular Age biomarker in the subclinical phase of dementia could be an important step towards unraveling cerebrovascular effects on cognition, and its association with cardiovascular disease. This will allow for secondary prevention and to closely monitor the benefits and risks of treatment on the cerebrovascular health and cognition.

DEBBIE

The DEBBIE project develops a non-invasive clinical imaging biomarker called BBB-ASL that maps the Blood-Brain Barrier (BBB) integrity loss in preclinical stages of Alzheimer’s Disease. This new biomarker will allow for repeated measurements and easy implementation in longitudinal follow-up studies and will be applied to other conditions, including vascular diseases and brain tumors. We expect BBB-ASL to be a viable alternative to Gadolinium-based contrast agents (GBCA), aiming to avoid or reduce the amount of Gadolinium administered clinically.


Image processing in multi-center trials

  • Mutsaerts HJMM, Petr J, Thomas DL, Vita E de, Cash DM, Osch MJP va. et al. Comparison of arterial spin labeling registration strategies in the multi-center GENetic frontotemporal dementia initiative (GENFI). J Magn Reson Imaging 2017. doi:10.1002/jmri.25751.

  • Mutsaerts HJMM, Steketee RME, Heijtel DFR, Kuijer JPA, Van Osch MJPMJP, Majoie CBLM et al. Inter-vendor reproducibility of pseudo-continuous arterial spin labeling at 3 Tesla. PLoS One 2014; 9. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0104108.

  • Mutsaerts HJ, Steketee RM, Heijtel DF, Kuijer JP, van Osch MJ, Majoie CB et al. Reproducibility of pharmacological ASL using sequences from different vendors: implications for multicenter drug studies. MAGMA 2015; 28. doi:10.1007/s10334-014-0480-1.

  • Mutsaerts HJMM, van Osch MJP, Zelaya FO, Wang DJJ, Nordhøy W, Wang Y et al. Multi-vendor reliability of arterial spin labeling perfusion MRI using a near-identical sequence: Implications for multi-center studies. Neuroimage 2015; 113. doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2015.03.043.

  • Steketee RME, Mutsaerts HJMM, Bron EE, Van Osch MJP, Majoie CBLM, Van Der Lugt A et al. Quantitative functional Arterial Spin Labeling (fASL) MRI - Sensitivity and reproducibility of regional CBF changes using pseudo-continuous ASL product sequences. PLoS One 2015; 10. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0132929

  • Mutsaerts HJMM, Steketee RME, Heijtel DFR, Kuijer JPA, Van Osch MJP, Majoie CBLM et al. Inter-vendor reproducibility of pseudo-continuous arterial spin labeling at 3 Tesla. PLoS One 2014; 9: e104108.

  • Heijtel DFR, Mutsaerts HJMM, Bakker E, Schober P, Stevens MF, Petersen ET et al. Accuracy and precision of pseudo-continuous arterial spin labeling perfusion during baseline and hypercapnia: a head-to-head comparison with 15O H₂O positron emission tomography. Neuroimage 2014; 92: 182–192.

  • Mutsaerts HJMM, Van Osch MJP, Zelaya FO, Wang DJJ, Nordhøy W, Wang Y et al. Multi-vendor reliability of arterial spin labeling perfusion MRI using a near-identical sequence: Implications for multi-center studies. Neuroimage 2015; 113: 143–152.

Development free-lunch approach to acquire extra vascular information from ASL scans

  • Mutsaerts HJMM, Petr J, Vaclavu L, van Dalen JW, Robertson AD, Caan MWA et al. The spatial coefficient of variation in arterial spin labeling cerebral blood flow images. JCerebBlood Flow Metab 2017; 37: 271678X16683690-.

  • Mutsaerts HJMM, Van Dalen J, Heijtel DFR, Groot PFC, Majoie CBLM, Petersen ET et al. Cerebral perfusion measurements in elderly with hypertension using arterial spin labeling. PLoS One 2015; 10. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0133717.

  • van Dalen JW, Mutsaerts HJMM, Nederveen AJ, Vrenken H, Steenwijk MD, Caan MWA et al. White matter hyperintensity volume and cerebral perfusion in older individuals with hypertension using arterial spin-labeling. Am J Neuroradiol 2016; In press. doi:10.3174/ajnr.A4828.

Work in longitudinal multi-center studies

  • Cole J, MWA C, Underwood J, De Francesco D, Van Zoest R, Mutsaerts H et al. No evidence for accelerated ageing-related brain pathology in treated HIV: longitudinal neuroimaging results from the Comorbidity in Relation to AIDS (COBRA) project. Clin Infect Dis 2018; In press.

  • Mutsaerts HJ, Mirza SS, Petr J, Thomas DL, Cash DM, Bocchetta M, De Vita E, Metcalfe AW, Shirzadi Z, Robertson AD, Tartaglia MC. Cerebral perfusion changes in presymptomatic genetic frontotemporal dementia: a GENFI study. Brain. 2019 Apr 1;142(4):1108-20.

Pharmaceutically related work

  • Mutsaerts HJ, Steketee RM, Heijtel DF, Kuijer JP, van Osch MJ, Majoie CB et al. Reproducibility of pharmacological ASL using sequences from different vendors: implications for multicenter drug studies. MAGMA 2015; 28. doi:10.1007/s10334-014-0480-1.

  • Schrantee A, Tamminga HGH, Bouziane C, Bottelier MA, Bron EE, Mutsaerts HJMM et al. Age-dependent effects of methylphenidate on the human dopaminergic system in young vs adult patients with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder: A randomized clinical trial. JAMA Psychiatry 2016; 73: 955–962.

  • Strang AC, Van Wijk DF, Mutsaerts HJMM, Stroes ESG, Nederveen AJ, Rotmans JI et al. Guideline treatment results in regression of atherosclerosis in type 2 diabetes mellitus. Diabetes Vasc Dis Res 2015; 12: 126–132.

  • Schrantee A, Mutsaerts HJMM, Bouziane C, Tamminga HGH, Bottelier MA, Reneman L. The age-dependent effects of a single-dose methylphenidate challenge on cerebral perfusion in patients with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. NeuroImage Clin 2017

On perfusion physiology

  • Clement P, Mutsaerts H, Vaclavu L, Ghariq E, Pizzini FB, Smits M et al. Variability of physiological brain perfusion in healthy subjects - A systematic review of modifiers. Considerations for multi-center ASL studies. J Cereb Blood Flow Metab 2017; In press. doi:10.1177/0271678X17702156.

Brain tumors

  • Petr J, Platzek I, Hofheinz F, Mutsaerts HJ, Asllani I, Van Osch MJ, Seidlitz A, Krukowski P, Gommlich A, Beuthien-Baumann B, Jentsch C. Photon vs. proton radiochemotherapy: effects on brain tissue volume and perfusion. Radiotherapy and Oncology. 2018 Jul 1;128(1):121-7.

  • Petr J, Platzek I, Seidlitz A, Mutsaerts HJ, Hofheinz F, Schramm G, Maus J, Beuthien-Baumann B, Krause M, Van Den Hoff J. Early and late effects of radiochemotherapy on cerebral blood flow in glioblastoma patients measured with non-invasive perfusion MRI. Radiotherapy and Oncology. 2016 Jan 1;118(1):24-8.

Methods development

  • Petr J, Mutsaerts HJ, De Vita E, Steketee RM, Smits M, Nederveen AJ, Hofheinz F, van Den Hoff J, Asllani I. Effects of systematic partial volume errors on the estimation of gray matter cerebral blood flow with arterial spin labeling MRI. Magnetic Resonance Materials in Physics, Biology and Medicine. 2018 Dec 1;31(6):725-34.

  • Mutsaerts HJ, Richard E, Heijtel DF, Van Osch MJ, Majoie CB, Nederveen AJ. Gray matter contamination in arterial spin labeling white matter perfusion measurements in patients with dementia. NeuroImage: Clinical. 2014 Jan 1;4:139-44.

ExploreASL has been/is used in several clinical studies: including the AMYPAD(1), APGEM(2), BioCog(3), COBRA(4), DDI(5), EDIS(6), EPAD(7), GENFI(8,9), PHOA(10), and NTR(11) consortia:

  • 1. Frisoni GB, Boccardi M, Barkhof F, et al. Strategic roadmap for an early diagnosis of Alzheimer ’ s disease based on biomarkers. Lancet Neurol. 2017;661–676.

  • 2. Kirsebom B-E, Espenes R, Waterloo K, et al. Screening for Alzheimer’s Disease: Cognitive Impairment in Self-Referred and Memory Clinic-Referred Patients. J Alzheimer’s Dis JAD. 2017;60(4):1621–1631http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=cmedm&AN=28984581&site=ehost-live.

  • 3. Mutsaerts MHJ, Kant I, Petr J, et al. Perfusion changes following elective surgery in the elderly. Eur Soc Magn Reson Med Biol. 2017. p. 3–5.

  • 4. van Zoest RA, Underwood J, De Francesco D, et al. Structural Brain Abnormalities in Successfully Treated HIV Infection: Associations With Disease and Cerebrospinal Fluid Biomarkers. J Infect Dis. 2017;217(1):69–81http://fdslive.oup.com/www.oup.com/pdf/production_in_progress.pdf. Accessed January 8, 2018.

  • 5. Fladby T, Palhaugen L, Selnes P, et al. Detecting at-risk Alzheimer’s disease cases. J Alzheimer’s Dis. 2017;60(1):97–105.

  • 6. Hilal S, Ikram MK, Saini M, et al. Prevalence of cognitive impairment in Chinese: Epidemiology of Dementia in Singapore study. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry. 2013;84(6):686–692.

  • 7. Ritchie CW, Molinuevo JL, Truyen L, Satlin A, Van der Geyten S, Lovestone S. Development of interventions for the secondary prevention of Alzheimer’s dementia: The European Prevention of Alzheimer’s Dementia (EPAD) project. The Lancet Psychiatry. 2016;3(2):179–186.

  • 8. Rohrer JD, Nicholas JM, Cash DM, et al. Presymptomatic cognitive and neuroanatomical changes in genetic frontotemporal dementia in the Genetic Frontotemporal dementia Initiative (GENFI) study: a cross-sectional analysis. Lancet Neurol. p. 253–262.

  • 9. Mutsaerts H, Petr J, Thomas DL, et al. Comparison of arterial spin labeling registration strategies in the multi-center GENetic frontotemporal dementia initiative (GENFI). J Magn Reson Imaging. United States; 2018;47(1):131–140.

  • 10. Blokhuis C, Mutsaerts HJMM, Cohen S, et al. Higher subcortical and white matter cerebral blood flow in perinatally HIV-infected children. Medicine (Baltimore). 2017;96(7):e5891.

  • 11. Willemsen G, Vink JM, Abdellaoui A, et al. The Adult Netherlands Twin Register: Twenty-five years of survey and biological data collection. Twin Res Hum Genet. 2013;16(1):271–281.