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Abstract #0454

Evidence for Two T2 Components of N-Acetyl-Aspartate (NAA) In Healthy White Matter

Erin L. MacMillan1,2,3, Carina Graf4,5, Cornelia Laule4,5,6,7, and Alex L. MacKay2,4,7

1MR Clinical Science, Philips Healthcare Canada, Markham, ON, Canada, 2UBC MRI Research Centre, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada, 3ImageTech Lab, Simon Fraser University, Surrey, BC, Canada, 4Physics & Astronomy, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada, 5International Collaboration on Repair Discoveries, Vancouver, BC, Canada, 6Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada, 7Radiology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada

N-acetyl-aspartate (NAA) is commonly referred to as an ‘axonal marker’ but recent electron microscopy evidence demonstrates higher levels of NAA in myelin than in neurons. Given the multi-exponential T2 nature of water in white matter (WM), we sought to determine if there are similarly two pools of NAA in WM. We performed multi-echo magnetic resonance spectroscopy in the WM of 5 healthy volunteers at 3T with TE from 10-800ms and observed a short T2 component between 13-40ms arising from 16-20% of the total signal. These preliminary results encourage further research into the bi-exponential nature of NAA in WM.

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