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Incorporating dixon multi‐echo fat water separation for novel quantitative magnetization transfer of the human optic nerve in vivo
Author(s) -
Smith Alex K.,
Dortch Richard D.,
Dethrage Lindsey M.,
Lyttle Bailey D.,
Kang Hakmook,
Welch E. Brian,
Smith Seth A.
Publication year - 2017
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.26164
Subject(s) - magnetization transfer , nuclear magnetic resonance , magnetic resonance imaging , white matter , magnetization , optic nerve , in vivo , chemistry , materials science , nuclear medicine , physics , anatomy , biology , medicine , radiology , magnetic field , quantum mechanics , microbiology and biotechnology
Purpose The optic nerve (ON) represents the sole pathway between the eyes and brain; consequently, diseases of the ON can have dramatic effects on vision. However, quantitative magnetization transfer (qMT) applications in the ON have been limited to ex vivo studies, in part because of the fatty connective tissue that surrounds the ON, confounding the magnetization transfer (MT) experiment. Therefore, the aim of this study was to implement a multi‐echo Dixon fat‐water separation approach to remove the fat component from MT images. Methods MT measurements were taken in a single slice of the ON and frontal lobe using a three‐echo Dixon readout, and the water and out‐of‐phase images were applied to a two‐pool model in ON tissue and brain white matter to evaluate the effectiveness of using Dixon fat‐water separation to remove fatty tissue from MT images. Results White matter data showed no significant differences between image types; however, there was a significant increase (p < 0.05) in variation in the out‐of‐phase images in the ON relative to the water images. Conclusions The results of this study demonstrate that Dixon fat‐water separation can be robustly used for accurate MT quantification of anatomies susceptible to partial volume effects resulting from fat. Magn Reson Med 77:707–716, 2017. © 2016 International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine