BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE In the early stage of Multiple Sclerosis (MS), conventional MR imaging parameters such as T2 lesion load fail to explain the clinical status of patients. In the present work, we aimed to determine the ability of magnification transfer imaging to better reflect the relationship between local tissue damage and functional status of MS patients. METHODS We performed a compa...

SUMMARY A novel semiinterleaved gradient-echo (GE) sequence for quantitative measurement of magnetization transfer ratio (MTR) is described. With this sequence, several lines of k-space are collected for the non-MT image then several lines are collected for the MT image, thus building up the entire k-space in distinct acquisition blocks, with a good trade-off between motion-induced misregistrat...

Magnetization transfer ratio (MTR) is a sensitive parameter to quantify the integrity of myelinated white matter in patients with multiple sclerosis. Lesional MTR decreases in the acute phase due to demyelination, and subsequently shows recovery depending on the degree of remyelination in the absence of axonal loss. Recovery of average lesion MTR therefore might prove a viable outcome measure t...

Introduction: Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has been established as the standard cartilage imaging modality, and techniques have been developed and optimized to visualize cartilage morphology and to analyze its biochemical composition [1]. T2 mapping technique, which assesses the loss of collagen matrix integrity and increase in water content is currently recognized and there are many studie...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE The extent of abnormalities on T2-weighted MR images of the brain of patients with clinically isolated syndromes (CIS) suggestive of multiple sclerosis (MS) at presentation is associated with an increased risk of developing clinically definite MS (CDMS). We evaluated whether subtle changes outside T2-visible lesions are present in the brain of these patients and whether t...

In established multiple sclerosis, magnetization transfer ratio (MTR) histograms reveal abnormalities of normal-appearing white matter (NAWM) and grey matter (NAGM). The aim of this study was to investigate for such abnormalities in a large cohort of patients presenting with clinically isolated syndromes suggestive of multiple sclerosis. Magnetization transfer imaging was performed on 100 patie...

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is an autoimmune disease with multi-organ involvement and results in neurological and psychiatric (NP) symptoms in up to 40% of the patients. To date, the diagnosis of neuropsychiatric systemic lupus erythematosus (NPSLE) poses a challenge due to the lack of neuroradiological gold standards. In this study, we aimed to better localize and characterize normal ap...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE In subjects with subcortical ischemic vascular dementia (SIVD), tissue vacuolization, myelin pallor, and demyelination have been found on pathologic examination of white matter signal hyperintensities (WMSH). Magnetization transfer ratio (MTR) values provide a potential measure of compromised white matter integrity. The purpose of this study was to determine if there were...

We investigated the magnetization transfer ratio (MTR) of normal-appearing white (NAWM) and grey matter (NAGM) in a relatively large group of multiple sclerosis (MS) patients, and the relations of MTR changes with clinical disability. MTR was measured in 66 MS patients (12 PP, 35 RR, 19 SP) and 23 healthy controls, using a whole-brain 3D-FLASH technique corrected post-hoc for B1-induced variati...

We present a new method for magnetization transfer (MT) ratio imaging in the brain that requires no separate saturation pulse. Interslice MT effects that are inherent to multi-slice balanced steady-state free precession (bSSFP) imaging were controlled via an interslice delay time to generate MT-weighted (0 s delay) and reference images (5-8 s delay) for MT ratio (MTR) imaging of the brain. The ...