title: Imaging gray matter with concomitant null point imaging from the phase sensitive inversion recovery sequence.
abstract: To present an improved three-dimensional (3D) interleaved phase sensitive inversion recovery (PSIR) sequence including a concomitantly acquired new contrast, null point imaging (NPI), to help detect and classify abnormalities in cortical gray matter.
  
  
  
  The 3D gradient echo PSIR images were acquired at 0.6 mm isotropic resolution on 11 multiple sclerosis (MS) patients and 9 controls subjects using a 7 Tesla (T) MRI scanner, and 2 MS patients at 3T. Cortical abnormalities were delineated on the NPI/PSIR data and later classified according to position in the cortex.
  
  
  
  The NPI helped detect cortical lesions within the cortical ribbon with increased, positive contrast compared with the PSIR. It also provided improved intrinsic delineation of the ribbon, increasing confidence in classifying the lesions' locations.
  
  
  
  The proposed PSIR facilitates the classification of cortical lesions by providing two T1-weighted 3D datasets with isotropic resolution, including the NPI showing cortical lesions with clear delineation of the gray/white matter boundary and minimal partial volume effects. Magn Reson Med 76:1512-1516, 2016. © 2015 The Authors. Magnetic Resonance in Medicine published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
authors.affiliation: Sir Peter Mansfield Imaging Centre, School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, United Kingdom. olivier.mougin@nottingham.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Olivier
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Mougin
authors.affiliation: Division of Clinical Neuroscience, School of Medicine, University of Nottingham, NG7 2RD, Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Rasha
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Abdel-Fahim
authors.affiliation: Division of Radiological and Imaging Sciences, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Dineen
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Alain
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Pitiot
authors.affiliation: Division of Clinical Neuroscience, School of Medicine, University of Nottingham, NG7 2RD, Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Nikos
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Evangelou
authors.affiliation: Sir Peter Mansfield Imaging Centre, School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Penny
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Gowland
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000465:Algorithms; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000473:pathology; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D005260:Female; D066128:Gray Matter / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000473:pathology; D006801:Humans; D007089:Image Enhancement / Q000379:methods; D007090:Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D021621:Imaging, Three-Dimensional / Q000379:methods*; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D009103:Multiple Sclerosis / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000473:pathology; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D012815:Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted
keywords: cerebral cortex; gray matter; imaging; magnetic resonance imaging; multiple sclerosis