The Multi-modal Australian ScienceS Imaging and Visualisation Environment (MASSIVE) is a national imaging and visualisation facility established by Monash University, the Australian Synchrotron, the Commonwealth Scientific Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), and the Victorian Partnership for Advanced Computing (VPAC), with funding from the National Computational Infrastructure and the Victorian Government. The MASSIVE facility provides hardware, software and expertise to drive research in the biomedical sciences, particularly advanced brain imaging research using synchrotron x-ray and infrared imaging, functional and structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), x-ray computer tomography (CT), electron microscopy and optical microscopy. The development of MASSIVE has been based on best practice in system integration methodologies, frameworks, and architectures. The facility has: (i) integrated multiple different neuroimaging analysis software components, (ii) enabled cross-platform and cross-modality integration of neuroinformatics tools, and (iii) brought together neuroimaging databases and analysis workflows. MASSIVE is now operational as a nationally distributed and integrated facility for neuroinfomatics and brain imaging research.

Objectives To measure iron accumulation in the basal ganglia in Huntington's disease (HD) using quantitative susceptibility mapping (QSM), and to ascertain its relevance in terms of clinical and disease severity. Methods In this cross-sectional investigation, weighted imaging was undertaken on 31 premanifest HD, 32 symptomatic HD and 30 control participants as part of the observational IMAGE-HD study. Group differences in iron accumulation were ascertained with QSM. Associations between susceptibility values and disease severity were also investigated. Results Compared with controls, both premanifest and symptomatic HD groups showed significantly greater iron content in pallidum, putamen and caudate. Additionally, iron accumulation in both putamen and caudate was significantly associated with disease severity. Conclusions These findings provide the first evidence that QSM is sensitive to iron deposition in subcortical target areas across premanifest and symptomatic stages of HD. Such findings could open up new avenues for biomarker development and therapeutic intervention.

IMAGE-HD is an Australian based multi-modal longitudinal magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) study in premanifest and early symptomatic Huntington’s disease (pre-HD and symp-HD, respectively). In this investigation we sought to determine the sensitivity of imaging methods to detect macrostructural (volume) and microstructural (diffusivity) longitudinal change in HD. We used a 3T MRI scanner to acquire T₁ and diffusion weighted images at baseline and 18 months in 31 pre-HD, 31 symp-HD and 29 controls. Volume was measured across the whole brain, and volume and diffusion measures were ascertained for caudate and putamen. We observed a range of significant volumetric and, for the first time, diffusion changes over 18 months in both pre-HD and symp-HD, relative to controls, detectable at the brain-wide level (volume change in grey and white matter) and in caudate and putamen (volume and diffusivity change). Importantly, longitudinal volume change in the caudate was the only measure that discriminated between groups across all stages of disease: far from diagnosis (>15 years), close to diagnosis (<15 years) and after diagnosis. Of the two diffusion metrics (mean diffusivity, MD; fractional anisotropy, FA), only longitudinal FA change was sensitive to group differences, but only after diagnosis. These findings further confirm caudate atrophy as one of the most sensitive and early biomarkers of neurodegeneration in HD. They also highlight that different tissue properties have varying schedules in their ability to discriminate between groups along disease progression and may therefore inform biomarker selection for future therapeutic interventions.