Analysis of Manganese Accumulation in the Pituitary Gland, Olfactory Bulb, and Hippocampus of Smelter Workers Using High Resolution 3D T1-Weighted MRI

• Activity Number: 528 - Contributed Poster Presentations: Section on Statistics in Imaging
• Type: Contributed
• Date/Time: Wednesday, July 31, 2019 : 10:30 AM to 12:20 PM
• Sponsor: Section on Statistics in Imaging
• Author(s): Alison Jeffries and Molly Cromer and Zeinab Aly* and Ulrike Dydak and Eric Cameron
• Companies: Purdue University and Purdue University and Purdue University and Purdue University and Purdue University
• Keywords: manganese accumulation; pituitary gland; olfactory bulb; hippocampus; smelting; welding

Abstract

Chronic exposure to excessive manganese (Mn) has neurotoxic effects. Workers in smelting and welding industries are commonly exposed to excessive Mn, and previous studies have identified the basal ganglia as a primary location of Mn deposition. This study investigates the pituitary gland, olfactory bulb, and the CA2 area of the hippocampus as additional regions of Mn deposition in the brain. Regions of interest (ROIs) in the pituitary gland, olfactory bulb, hippocampus, and tongue (for reference) were manually placed on high-resolution 3D T1-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data from a former study of 10 smelters and 10 controls. The relative intensity of each region was determined by calculating the ratio of the intensities of the brain region to the tongue to account for variability in the MRI.

While no significant difference in relative intensity between smelters and controls was found in the olfactory bulb or the hippocampus, smelters showed a significant increase (p = 0.002) in relative intensity in the pituitary gland compared to controls, indicating increased Mn accumulation in this region. This research is supported by NSF Grant DMS-1246818.