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Normal‐appearing white matter in multiple sclerosis has heterogeneous, diffusely prolonged T 2
Author(s) -
Whittall Kenneth P.,
MacKay Alex L.,
Li David K.B.,
Vavasour Irene M.,
Jones Craig K.,
Paty Donald W.
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
magnetic resonance in medicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.696
H-Index - 225
eISSN - 1522-2594
pISSN - 0740-3194
DOI - 10.1002/mrm.10076
Subject(s) - white matter , multiple sclerosis , voxel , nuclear magnetic resonance , nuclear medicine , myelin , medicine , pathology , physics , magnetic resonance imaging , central nervous system , radiology , psychiatry
T 2 relaxation in normal‐appearing white matter (NAWM) of multiple sclerosis (MS) patients was reexamined using more complete sampling and analysis of decay curves, and to assess focal vs. diffuse abnormalities. Nine MS patients and 10 controls were scanned using a single‐slice 32‐echo pulse sequence with a 10‐ms echo spacing. Decay curves from outlined white and gray matter structures were analyzed using non‐negative least‐squares (NNLS). Resulting T 2 distributions were each summarized by the geometric mean T 2 , T 2 . Different white matter structures had different mean (over the subjects in a group) T 2 . Mean T 2 in NAWM was always greater than that of controls. Differences were not caused by a few voxels with extreme T 2 (i.e., focal lesions), but rather by shifts of the entire T 2 distribution (diffuse prolongation). This T 2 increase suggests diffuse myelin or axonal pathology. Magn Reson Med 47:403–408, 2002. © 2002 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.