Irene Margaret Vavasour1, Cornelia Laule1, Shannon H. Kolind2, Roger Tam1, Jimmy Lee3, Burkhard Maedler4, Anthony L. Traboulsee3, David K. Li1, Alex L. MacKay1,2
1Radiology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada; 2Physics and Astronomy, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada; 3Medicine, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada; 4Phillips Healthcare, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
As the magnetic resonance signal is primarily from water, a persons hydration status could potentially influence the values of MR parameters from brain. In this study, histograms of water content, myelin water fraction, T1 and T2 were obtained from brain in 20 healthy volunteers in four acquisitions: before and after drinking 3 litres of water and two scans after fasting for 9 hours. No significant differences were found between the MR parameter histograms from the four sessions, indicating that brain hydration was affected minimally by the protocol.