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Abstract #3615

Ultra-Fast T2 Mapping of Multiple Sclerosis Pathology in Early Disease

Guillaume Bonnier1, Tilman Johannes Sumpf2, David Romanasco1, Alexis Roche1, Myriam Schluep3, Renaud Du Pasquier3, Jens Frahm2, Gunnar Krueger4, Cristina Granziera3

1ACIT, EPFL, Lausanne, Switzerland; 2biophysikalische Chemie Biomedizinische NMR Forschungs GmbH, Max Planck Institute, Gttingen, Germany; 3Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois (CHUV), Lausanne, Switzerland; 4Advanced Clinical Imaging Technology, Siemens Healthcare IM S AW, Lausanne, Switzerland


In this study, we investigated the sensitivity of ultrafast T2 relaxometry measurements (ca 3 min acquisition time for the whole brain) in early stages of multiple sclerosis. We extracted regions of interest (ROIs) using a software based on variational expectation-maximization tissue classification; we then performed a statistical analysis using permutation-based Hotelling tests, using age and gender as covariates and correction for family-wise error rate. Results show that white matter T2 values were significantly higher in patients than in controls, suggesting that ultrafast T2 sequence provides a valuable instrument to quantify the impact of MS in early stages of the disease.