ArticlebioRxiv : the preprint server for biology2026
A DERIVED RELAXATION CONTRAST FROM SYNTHETIC MRI FOR DETECTING NETWORK MICROSTRUCTURAL VULNERABILITY.
Article in bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
10 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Background: Odor identification impairment is an early marker of Alzheimer's disease (AD) that predicts memory decline, yet its underlying microstructural basis remains unclear. We hypothesized that mild cognitive impairment (MCI) involves early myelin and lipid disruption within olfactory-limbic circuits, detectable using a synthetic MRI-derived contrast that provides complementary sensitivity to myelin volume fraction (MVF). Methods: Thirty-three older adults (healthy controls [HC], n = 16; mild cognitive impairment [MCI], n = 17) completed olfactory and cognitive testing and underwent 3T brain MRI using a QALAS sequence. An MVF map and synthetic FLAIR and DIR images were generated, and a FLAIR-DIR-derived metric (FD) was computed as FD = (FLAIR - DIR) / FLAIR. We investigated ROI-based group differences in olfactory-limbic gray-matter regions and associated white-matter tracts, voxel-wise regressions investigating FD-odor identification associations, and ROI-based MCI vs HC classification using cross-validated logistic regression models. Results: Compared with HC, MCI showed significantly lower FD across olfactory-limbic gray-matter regions and white-matter pathways-including hippocampus, amygdala, orbitofrontal cortex, thalamus, and corpus callosum-whereas MVF differences were more limited. FD achieved moderate discrimination, with baseline performance comparable to MVF. Voxel-wise analyses revealed that better odor identification was associated with higher FD in the hippocampus/parahippocampal and insula; the association persisted after adjusting for voxel-wise MVF. MVF also showed significant positive voxel-wise associations with odor identification in the insula and genu of the corpus callosum. Conclusion: FD is a practical, myelin- and lipid-sensitive contrast derived from routinely acquired synthetic FLAIR & DIR images that complement quantitative MVF. It captures behaviorally relevant variance beyond local myelin content and may improve detection of early olfactory-limbic microstructural changes in MCI. These findings support FD as a scalable candidate marker linking early network disruption to olfactory symptoms across the AD continuum.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.