Chunlei Liu1, 2, Wei Li1
1Brain Imaging and Analysis Center, Duke University, Durham, NC, United States; 2Department of Radiology, Duke University, Durham, NC, United States
Current MRI protocols show only part of MS pathology, failing to reveal important changes occurring at the microscopic level. In addition, distinguishing MRI lesions due to overlapping pathology remains difficult and clinically problematic. This study investigated the utility of quantitative magnetic susceptibility as a means to quantify MS plaques. A group of MS patients and asymptomatic subjects with hyper-intense FLAIR images were scanned. The results indicated that quantitative magnetic susceptibility mapping may potentially improve the sensitivity and specificity for the detection of MS plaques.