title: Preliminary Observations on Sensitivity and Specificity of Magnetization Transfer Asymmetry for Imaging Myelin of Rat Brain at High Field.
abstract: Magnetization transfer ratio (MTR) has been often used for imaging myelination. Despite its high sensitivity, the specificity of MTR to myelination is not high because tissues with no myelin such as muscle can also show high MTR. In this study, we propose a new magnetization transfer (MT) indicator, MT asymmetry (MTA), as a new method of myelin imaging. The experiments were performed on rat brain at 9.4 T. MTA revealed high signals in white matter and significantly low signals in gray matter and muscle, indicating that MTA has higher specificity than MTR. Demyelination and remyelination studies demonstrated that the sensitivity of MTA to myelination was as high as that of MTR. These experimental results indicate that MTA can be a good biomarker for imaging myelination. In addition, MTA images can be efficiently acquired with an interslice MTA method, which may accelerate clinical application of myelin imaging.
authors.affiliation: Department of Bio and Brain Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Daejeon 305-701, Republic of Korea ; Division of Magnetic Resonance Research, Korea Basic Science Institute, Ochang-eup, Cheongwon-gun, Chungcheongbuk-do 363-883, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Jae-Woong
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: Department of Bio and Brain Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Daejeon 305-701, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Jiye
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Choi
authors.affiliation: Division of Magnetic Resonance Research, Korea Basic Science Institute, Ochang-eup, Cheongwon-gun, Chungcheongbuk-do 363-883, Republic of Korea ; Department of Chemistry, Chung-Ang University, Seoul 156-756, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Janggeun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Cho
authors.affiliation: Division of Magnetic Resonance Research, Korea Basic Science Institute, Ochang-eup, Cheongwon-gun, Chungcheongbuk-do 363-883, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Chulhyun
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: Department of Bio and Brain Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Daejeon 305-701, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Daejong
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Jeon
authors.affiliation: Department of Bio and Brain Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Daejeon 305-701, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Sung-Hong
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Park
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001921:Brain / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000473:pathology*; D003711:Demyelinating Diseases / Q000473:pathology*; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D059346:Magnets; D008297:Male; D009186:Myelin Sheath / Q000473:pathology*; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley