Erin Leigh MacMillan1, Armin Curt2,3, Burkhard Mdler4, David K. Li5, Marcel F. Dvorak3,6, Alexander L. MacKay5,7
1Dept. of Clinical Research, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland; 2Dept. of Neurology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada; 3International Collaboration on Repair Discoveries, Vancouver, BC, Canada; 4Philips Healthcare, Vancouver, BC, Canada; 5Dept. of Radiology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada; 6Dept. of Orthopaedics, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada; 7Dept. of Physics & Astronomy, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada
Myelin water imaging (MWI) enables the measurement of the fraction of water trapped between myelin bilayers, the myelin water fraction (MWF). In this study we performed MWI in the cervical spine of healthy adults and sought to determine the scan-rescan reproducibility, as well as changes with age. In a population of adults aged 21 to 75, a negative trend of MWF with age was detected, indicating that white matter myelin content in the cervical spinal cord decreases with age.