Abstract #0988

Cohen Y, Biton I, Duncan I

The relative importance of myelin in the determining diffusion anisotropy of water in white matter (WM) remains elusive. To address this problem, high b value q-space diffusion MRS and MRI were performed on myelin deficient (md) and age-matched control spinal cords at different diffusion times and gradient pulse durations. Although differences in the diffusion characteristics between the two groups was observed at all diffusion times, diffusion anisotropy was apparent only at relatively long diffusion times. The possible implications of these results on the use of diffusion anisotropy for detecting WM abnormalities is briefly discussed.