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Multislice Brain Myelin Water Fractions at 3T in Multiple Sclerosis
Author(s) -
Oh Joonmi,
Han Eric T.,
Lee Michael C.,
Nelson Sarah J.,
Pelletier Daniel
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
journal of neuroimaging
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.822
H-Index - 64
eISSN - 1552-6569
pISSN - 1051-2284
DOI - 10.1111/j.1552-6569.2007.00098.x
Subject(s) - medicine , multiple sclerosis , multislice , relapsing remitting , white matter , nuclear medicine , myelin , radiology , magnetic resonance imaging , central nervous system , psychiatry
Purpose . To evaluate a multislice nonlinearly‐spaced 12‐echo imaging sequence at 3T covering the supratentorial brain for the quantification of myelin water fraction (MWF) in multiple sclerosis (MS) patients. Methods . Eighty‐nine patients with, or at risk of, MS (69 relapsing remitting MS [RRMS], 7 secondary progressive MS [SPMS], 13 clinically isolated syndrome [CIS]) and 28 controls were studied. Twelve‐echo datasets were acquired using a multislice T2 prep spiral imaging sequence and were fitted using a nonnegative least squares algorithm. The mean MWF within normal appearing white matter (NAWM), contrast‐enhancing (CE), and nonenhancing T2 lesions were calculated. Results . Mean MWF in white matter for controls was 11.3%. Mean MWF was significantly reduced in NAWM of MS patients (10.6%, P = .004) relative to controls. SPMS/RRMS patients with disease duration >5 years (10.3%) had lower MWF compared to CIS/RRMS with disease duration ≤5 years (10.8%, P = .03). Mean MWF was reduced by 26% and 29% within both CE ( P < .0001) and nonenhancing T2 lesions ( P < .0001) relative to controls. Conclusions . Using a multicomponent T2 sequence at 3T, a significant decrease in the supratentorial MWF was observed in MS NAWM and lesions relative to controls. The method was sensitive to detect white matter changes early in the disease process.