Measurements of Myelin Water in Rat Spinal Cord In vivo

A. C. Yung, A. Choo, J. Liu, W. Tetzlaff, T. Oxland, P. Kozlowski Prostate Centre, Vancouver General Hospital, Vancouver, BC, Canada, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada Introduction Changes in the amount of myelin water in spinal cord (SC) occur at the time of spinal cord injury and during the subsequent deterioration and recovery phases. Tracking the progression of myelin water fraction (MWF) can therefore be an important marker of SC pathology over time, and can be used to measure the success of potential SC therapies (e.g. drugs which aim to rebuild the myelin at the injury site [1]). In addition, measuring MWF may be important in tracking the progression of multiple sclerosis in the SC. MRI is a powerful tool in tracking myelin water because it allows serial in vivo measurements in the same subject over time. This preliminary work presents MR myelin water measurements in injured and control rat spinal cords.