Vessel distance mapping: Quantification of subcortical arterial and venous vascular patterns to study their interdependency

血管距离测绘：皮质下动脉和静脉血管模式的量化以研究它们的相互依赖性

• 批准号: 446268581
• 负责人: Dr.-Ing. Hendrik Mattern
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Klinik für Neurologie
• 依托单位国家: 德国
• 项目类别: Research Grants
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 德国
• 起止时间: 2019-12-31 至 2021-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gepris.dfg.de/gepris/projekt/446268581?language=en
• 关键词: Vessel; distance; mapping; Quantification; subcortical

The integrity and function of the brain rely on the supply and draining of blood through the arterial and venous vasculature, respectively. Subcortical structures, involved in motor, sensory, cognitive and behavioral tasks, are perfused by the major cerebral arteries. The perfusion territories of these large arteries are spatially variable between subjects. This variability influences the organization of small, perforating arteries. We hypothesize that this variability in subcortical perfusion territories is propagated from the arterial side through the capillary bed into the organization of subcortical veins. Thus, we suspect that subcortical arterial and venous vasculatures are interdependent and that distinct vessel patterns exist. Therefore, if the trajectory of an individual, subcortical vessel is altered, this could induce changes within its surrounding arterial and venous network to maintain a specific pattern of local vessel-vessel-distances. To our best knowledge, this hypothesized interdependency of the arterial-venous patterns has not been studied comprehensively to date. To validate non-invasively this hypothesis in living humans, the following objectives have been identified:(1) Use ultra-high field MRI and prospective motion correction to achieve the required high resolutions (voxel size < 0.4mm) to depict the perforating arteries and veins(2) Segment the vasculature using a vesselness filter and apply distance transform to compute vascular distance maps(3) Find common, subcortical arterial-venous patterns using unsupervised clustering(4) Validate each processing step thoroughly by expertsBy addressing these objectives, a novel, fully automatic technique to analyze vascular distance patterns will be established. Further, proving the interdependency of the arterial and venous vasculature could have an impact on small vessel imaging, diagnose, and treatment in general, as an interdependency might render a joint assessment more promising that focusing on a single side of the vasculature. As the vascular component of neurodegenerative diseases and aging could induce specific vessel-vessel-pattern progressions, the proposed approach could be used as a new biomarker in future, longitudinal studies.

大脑的完整性和功能分别依赖于通过动脉和静脉血管系统的血液供应和排出。大脑皮层下结构由大脑主要动脉灌注，参与运动、感觉、认知和行为任务。这些大动脉的灌注区域在受试者之间是空间可变的。这种变异性影响小的穿通动脉的组织。我们假设，这种变异性在皮层下灌注领土传播从动脉侧通过毛细血管床到组织的皮层下静脉。因此，我们怀疑皮质下动脉和静脉血管是相互依赖的，存在不同的血管模式。因此，如果单个皮质下血管的轨迹发生改变，这可能会引起其周围动脉和静脉网络的变化，以保持局部血管-血管距离的特定模式。据我们所知，这种假设的相互依赖的动脉-静脉模式还没有得到全面的研究。为了在活体人类中非侵入性地验证这一假设，已经确定了以下目标：（1） 使用超高场MRI和前瞻性运动校正，以达到所需的高分辨率（体素尺寸<0.4 mm），以描绘穿支动脉和静脉（2） 使用血管性滤波器分割血管，并应用距离变换计算血管距离图（3） 使用无监督聚类查找常见的皮质下动静脉模式（4） 通过解决这些目标，将建立一种新的，全自动的技术来分析血管距离模式。此外，证明动脉和静脉血管系统的相互依赖性通常会对小血管成像、诊断和治疗产生影响，因为相互依赖性可能会使联合评估比关注血管系统的单侧更有希望。由于神经退行性疾病和衰老的血管成分可以诱导特定的血管-血管模式进展，因此所提出的方法可以用作未来纵向研究中的新生物标志物。