Multislice brain myelin water fractions at 3T in multiple sclerosis.
OBJECTIVE
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 <or=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.
Oh
Joonmi
J
Department of Radiology, University of California, San Francisco, California 94117, USA.
Han
Eric T
ET
Lee
Michael C
MC
Nelson
Sarah J
SJ
Pelletier
Daniel
D
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001921:Brain / Q000473:pathology*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D008875:Middle Aged; D020528:Multiple Sclerosis, Chronic Progressive / Q000473:pathology*; D020529:Multiple Sclerosis, Relapsing-Remitting / Q000473:pathology*; D009186:Myelin Sheath / Q000737:chemistry*; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D014867:Water / Q000032:analysis*
D014867:Water