Quantitative susceptibility mapping reveals widespread brain iron abnormalities in sporadic patients with early-stage amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

Clicks: 1
ID: 314947
2026
Free PDF
Article Quality & Performance Metrics
Overall Quality
Not rated
Combines reader engagement with the AI quality analysis. This article has not been analysed, so there is no overall score — reader engagement is measured and shown alongside.
AI Quality Assessment
Not analyzed
Readership in this journal

Ranked #90 of 116 articles by views in Brain communications

Most read Least read

Bar heights use a square-root scale.

Mint this article as an NFT
Not yet minted

Create a permanent, verifiable on-chain record of this article on the Scimatic Network. The NFT is held in your Journament account, and you can withdraw it to your own wallet at any time.

5 SUSD one-off · no wallet required
Sign in to mint
Abstract
Abstract In the present study, using the novel quantitative susceptibility mapping (QSM) technique, we aimed to systematically investigate brain iron alterations in a large group of sporadic early-stage amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS-ES) patients and their correlation with clinical disability. In this study, ALS patients at King’s stage 1 were defined as ALS-ES patients, and 53 newly diagnosed ALS-ES patients and 50 healthy controls (HCs) were included. Voxel-based whole-brain QSM analysis was used to explore brain iron alterations. Voxel-based morphometry (VBM) analysis was also performed. Longitudinal follow-up was performed in ALS patients, and the follow-up progression rate (FPR) was calculated. We found that, compared with HCs, ALS-ES patients presented significantly increased susceptibility values, mainly in the motor cortex, prefrontal cortex, hippocampus, and cerebellar regions, while volumetric alterations were not detected. Moreover, motor and extra-motor cortex susceptibility values were significantly correlated with upper motor neuron (UMN) scores and FPR (r = 0.452-0.504, p < 0.01) in ALS-ES patients. We demonstrated a clear profile of early motor and extra-motor iron depositions and their important roles in early-stage ALS patients. We suggest that QSM is likely a promising neuroimaging approach for assessing early UMN damage and detecting early extra-motor alterations in ALS patients.
Reference Key
openalex_W7162431022 Use this key to autocite in the manuscript while using SciMatic Manuscript Manager or Thesis Manager
Authors Mingjie Ma, B D Zhao, Ninglu Gao, Xiaohan Sun, Kai Shao, Pengfei Lin, Wei Li, Y J Zhao, Dexin Yu, Chuanzhu Yan, Shuangwu Liu, Yan Yun
Journal Brain communications
Year 2026
DOI
10.1093/braincomms/fcag190
URL
https://doi.org/10.1093/braincomms/fcag190
Keywords Keywords not found

Citations

No citations found. To add a citation, contact the admin at info@scimatic.org

Comments

No comments yet. Be the first to comment on this article.