Effects of hormone replacement therapy on magnetic resonance imaging of brain parenchyma hyperintensities in postmenopausal women

摘要

Aim:To apply 3.0 magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to study the effects of long-term,low dose hormone replacement therapy (HRT) on the brain parenchyma of postmenopausal women.Methods:A total of 155 postmenopausal healthy female medical staff members from Peking Union Medical College Hospital were enrolled.The HRT group was composed of 71 subjects who had been given a low dose of HRT for over 4 years,while 84 women who had never been given HRT were enrolled in the control group.The Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) was used to evaluate mental state,and an Enzyme-Linked ImmunoSorbent Assay (ELISA) was used to detect plasma levels of sex hormones.In addition,all participants were subjected to an MRI,including axial T2 weighted imaging (T2WI),fluid-attenuated inversion recovery (FLAIR),T1 weighted imaging (TIWI,oblique coronal,vertical to the hippocampus,slice thickness 3 mm without gaps),and a 3D image of the whole brain.Results:The ELISA showed that the plasma level of estradiol in the HRT group was significantly higher than that in the control group (P