Deep-gray nuclei susceptibility-weighted imaging filtered phase shift in patients with Wilson's disease.

Background: Susceptibility-weighted imaging (SWI) is a useful tool for evaluating brain paramagnetic mineralization. The aim of this study was to evaluate SWI filtered phase shift in brain gray nuclei of Wilson's disease (WD).

Methods: Twenty-three WD patients and 23 age- and gender-matched healthy controls underwent SWI. Phase values of bilateral brain gray nuclei were measured on corrected phase image of all subjects.

Results: Compared with healthy controls, WD patients showed a trend of negative phase shift in all regions of interest, and significantly lower phase value was found in bilateral putamen (PU) (left P = 0.009, right P = 0.001), caudate (left P = 0.001, right P = 0.001), thalamus (TH) (left P < 0.001, right P < 0.001), red nucleus (left P = 0.031, right P = 0.049), and substantia nigra (left P = 0.003, right P = 0.047). The WD patients groups were divided into neurological, hepatic, and asymptomatic onset subgroups. And neurological onset patients had lower phase value than hepatic onset patients on bilateral PU (left P = 0.025, right P = 0.002) and TH (left P = 0.025, right P = 0.025).

Conclusion: Abnormal negative phase value was significantly increased in brain gray nuclei of WD patients, giving evidence in vivo about paramagnetic mineralization accumulating in brain gray nuclei. The phase shift of SWI could be used as a potential biomarker to help in diagnosing and evaluating WD.