Diffusion MRI Measures Track Autopsy Pathology in Frontotemporal Dementia Study
Published in Brain/Neurology, Diseases!, Scanners and Imaging.
October 10, 2026
Oxford Brain Diagnostics announced on October 9 that its Cortical Disarray Measurement technology showed associations with autopsy-confirmed disease patterns in frontotemporal lobar degeneration. The research is being presented at the 2026 International Conference on Frontotemporal Dementias.
Working with University of Pennsylvania researchers, the team compared diffusion MRI measurements acquired during life with subsequent postmortem findings across 14 cortical regions. The study included 36 people with behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia: 19 with tau pathology and 17 with TDP-43 pathology.
The analysis examined PerpPD+, a measure of cortical microstructural organization, against the distribution of pathology in outer and deeper cortical layers. According to the announcement, associations differed between the two disease forms and were especially strong in the TDP-43 group.
The findings suggest that diffusion MRI may capture aspects of disease biology beyond brain volume. However, this association in an autopsy-confirmed cohort does not establish reliable molecular diagnosis for individual patients during life.
Larger prospective studies are needed. The announcement describes conference research and does not provide diagnostic sensitivity or specificity estimates.