Feasibility and reproducibility of whole brain myelin water mapping in 4 minutes using fast acquisition with spiral trajectory and adiabatic T2prep (FAST-T2) at 3T.
To develop and measure the reproducibility of 4-min whole brain myelin water fraction (MWF) mapping using fast acquisition with spiral trajectory and T2prep (FAST-T2) sequence at 3T.



Experiments were performed on phantoms, 13 volunteers, and 16 patients with multiple sclerosis. MWF maps were extracted using a spatially constrained non-linear algorithm. The proposed adiabatic modified BIR-4 (mBIR-4) T2prep was compared with the conventional composite T2prep (COMP). The effect of reducing the number of echo times (TEs) from 15 to 6 (reducing scan time from 10 to 4 min) was evaluated. Reproducibility was assessed using correlation analysis, coefficient of variation (COV), and Bland-Altman plots.



Compared with COMP, mBIR-4 provided more accurate T2 in phantoms and better MWF maps in human brains. Reducing the number of TEs had a negligible effect on MWF map quality, with a regional MWF difference of <0.8%. Regional MWFs obtained by repeated scans showed excellent correlation (R = 0.99), low COV (1.3%-2.4%), and negligible bias within ±1% limits of agreement. On a voxel-wise basis, the agreement remained strong (correlation R = 0.89 ± 0.03, bias = 0.01% ± 0.29%, limits of agreement = [-3.35% ± 0.73%, 3.33% ± 0.61%]).



Whole brain MWF mapping with adiabatic FAST-T2 is feasible in 4 min and provides good intrasite reproducibility. Magn Reson Med 76:456-465, 2016. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Department of Radiology, Weill Cornell Medical College, New York, New York, USA.
Thanh D
TD
Nguyen
Department of Radiology, Weill Cornell Medical College, New York, New York, USA.
Kofi
K
Deh
Department of Neurology and Neuroscience, Weill Cornell Medical College, New York, New York, USA.
Elizabeth
E
Monohan
Department of Radiology, Weill Cornell Medical College, New York, New York, USA.
Sneha
S
Pandya
Department of Radiology, Weill Cornell Medical College, New York, New York, USA.
Pascal
P
Spincemaille
Department of Radiology, Weill Cornell Medical College, New York, New York, USA.
Ashish
A
Raj
Department of Radiology, Weill Cornell Medical College, New York, New York, USA.
Yi
Y
Wang
Department of Neurology and Neuroscience, Weill Cornell Medical College, New York, New York, USA.
Susan A
SA
Gauthier
D000328:Adult; D000465:Algorithms; D001834:Body Water / Q000737:chemistry*; D001923:Brain Chemistry; D056324:Diffusion Tensor Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D005240:Feasibility Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007089:Image Enhancement / Q000379:methods; D007090:Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D057054:Molecular Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D009103:Multiple Sclerosis; D009186:Myelin Sheath / Q000737:chemistry*; D019047:Phantoms, Imaging; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D012815:Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted
3T; BIR-4; T2 relaxometry; myelin water fraction; spiral sampling