Quantitative MRI Study of Non-cognitively Impaired HIV Patients Shows No Detectable Neurodegeneration

Background: It is known that HIV infects the central nervous system (CNS) early after infection. If untreated, CNS infection results in significant cognitive deficit (e.g. AIDS dementia complex). Although HIV treatment (such as HAART) controls peripheral viral replication there is some doubt whether the drug is able to penetrate the CNS. The quantitative MRI techniques DTI, MTR and MRS have shown they offer the possibility of identifying subtle changes in normal-appearing brain in neurodegenerative diseases such as MS [1]. We used these techniques to determine whether non-cognitively impaired HIV patients (both treated and untreated) exhibit detectable brain damage compared to healthy volunteers. Regular QA shows that the scanner delivers excellent repeatability with a normal variation in MTR being one of the best of published MTR studies [2].