Comparison of multi echo T2 relaxation and steady state approaches for myelin imaging in the central nervous system
The traditional approach for measuring myelin-associated water with quantitative magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) uses multi-echo T 2 relaxation data to calculate the myelin water fraction (MWF). A fundamentally different approach, abbreviated “mcDESPOT”, uses a more efficient steady-state acquisiti...
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Published in | Scientific reports Vol. 11; no. 1; p. 1369 |
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Main Authors | , , , , , , , , |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
London
Nature Publishing Group UK
14.01.2021
Nature Publishing Group Nature Portfolio |
Subjects | |
Online Access | Get full text |
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Summary: | The traditional approach for measuring myelin-associated water with quantitative magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) uses multi-echo T
2
relaxation data to calculate the myelin water fraction (MWF). A fundamentally different approach, abbreviated “mcDESPOT”, uses a more efficient steady-state acquisition to generate an equivalent metric (f
M
). Although previous studies have demonstrated inherent instability and bias in the complex mcDESPOT analysis procedure, f
M
has often been used as a surrogate for MWF. We produced and compared multivariate atlases of MWF and f
M
in healthy human brain and cervical spinal cord (available online) and compared their ability to detect multiple sclerosis pathology. A significant bias was found in all regions (p < 10
–5
), albeit reversed for spinal cord (f
M
-MWF = − 3.4%) compared to brain (+ 6.2%). MWF and f
M
followed an approximately linear relationship for regions with MWF < ~ 10%. For MWF > ~ 10%, the relationship broke down and f
M
no longer increased in tandem with MWF. For multiple sclerosis patients, MWF and f
M
Z score maps showed overlapping areas of low Z score and similar trends between patients and brain regions, although those of f
M
generally had greater spatial extent and magnitude of severity. These results will guide future choice of myelin-sensitive quantitative MRI and improve interpretation of studies using either myelin imaging approach. |
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Bibliography: | ObjectType-Article-2 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-1 content type line 23 |
ISSN: | 2045-2322 2045-2322 |
DOI: | 10.1038/s41598-020-80585-7 |