Myelin Water Fraction and Intra/Extracellular Water Geometric Mean T 2 Normative Atlases for the Cervical Spinal Cord from 3T MRI

Acquiring and interpreting quantitative myelin-specific MRI data at an individual level is challenging because of technical difficulties and natural myelin variation in the population. To overcome these challenges, we used multiecho T myelin water imaging (MWI) to create T metric healthy population...

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Published in:Journal of neuroimaging 2020-01, Vol.30 (1), p.50-57
Main Authors: Liu, Hanwen, Ljungberg, Emil, Dvorak, Adam V, Lee, Lisa Eunyoung, Yik, Jackie T, MacMillan, Erin L, Barlow, Laura, Li, David K B, Traboulsee, Anthony, Kolind, Shannon H, Kramer, John L K, Laule, Cornelia
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Cervical Cord - chemistry
Cervical Cord - diagnostic imaging
Cervical Cord - pathology
Female
Humans
Magnetic Resonance Imaging - methods
Male
Multiple Sclerosis, Relapsing-Remitting - diagnostic imaging
Multiple Sclerosis, Relapsing-Remitting - pathology
Myelin Sheath - chemistry
Myelin Sheath - pathology
Water - analysis
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Summary:Acquiring and interpreting quantitative myelin-specific MRI data at an individual level is challenging because of technical difficulties and natural myelin variation in the population. To overcome these challenges, we used multiecho T myelin water imaging (MWI) to create T metric healthy population atlases that depict the mean and variation of myelin water fraction (MWF), and intra- and extracellular water mobility as described by geometric mean T (IEGMT ). Cervical cord MWI was performed at 3T on 20 healthy individuals (10M/10F, mean age: 36 years) and 3 relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS) participants (1M/2F, age: 39/42/37 years). Anatomical data were collected for the purpose of image segmentation and registration. Atlases were created by coregistering and averaging T metrics from all controls. Voxel-wise z-score maps from 3 RRMS participants were produced to demonstrate the preliminary utility of the MWF and IEGMT atlases. The average MWF atlas provides a representation of myelin in the spinal cord consistent with well-known spinal cord anatomical characteristics. The IEGMT atlas also depicted structural variations in the spinal cord. Z-score analysis illustrated distinct abnormalities in MWF and IEGMT in the 3 RRMS cases. Our findings highlight the potential for using a quantitative T relaxation metric atlas to visualize and detect pathology in spinal cord. Our MWF and IEGMT atlases (URL: https://sourceforge.net/projects/mwi-spinal-cord-atlases/) can serve as normative references in the cervical spinal cord for other studies.
ISSN:1051-2284
1552-6569
DOI:10.1111/jon.12659