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Robust myelin water quantification: Averaging vs. spatial filtering
Author(s) -
Jones Craig K.,
Whittall Kenneth P.,
MacKay Alex L.
Publication year - 2003
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.10492
Subject(s) - voxel , myelin , white matter , fraction (chemistry) , spatial filter , nuclear magnetic resonance , chemistry , filter (signal processing) , physics , chromatography , computer science , artificial intelligence , magnetic resonance imaging , optics , biology , central nervous system , medicine , radiology , computer vision , neuroscience
The myelin water fraction is calculated, voxel‐by‐voxel, by fitting decay curves from a multi‐echo data acquisition. Curve‐fitting algorithms require a high signal‐to‐noise ratio to separate T 2 components in the T 2 distribution. This work compared the effect of averaging, during acquisition, to data postprocessed with a noise reduction filter. Forty regions, from five volunteers, were analyzed. A consistent decrease in the myelin water fraction variability with no bias in the mean was found for all 40 regions. Images of the myelin water fraction of white matter were more contiguous and had fewer “holes” than images of myelin water fractions from unfiltered echoes. Spatial filtering was effective for decreasing the variability in myelin water fraction calculated from 4‐average multi‐echo data. Magn Reson Med 50:206–209, 2003. © 2003 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.