Caterina Mainero1, Thomas Benner1, Amy Radding1, Rikke Jensen2, Andre van der Kouwe1, R P. Kinkel2, Bruce R. Rosen1
1A. A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Massachusetts General Hospital, Charlestown, MA, USA; 2Neurology, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, MA, USA
In this study we assessed the use of 7T MRI to (1) visualize cortical lesions, including all histopathological types, in patient with multiple sclerosis (MS); (2) characterize the contrast properties of cortical lesions including T2*, T2, T1, and phase images to assess which MR contrasts are more sensitive to cortical pathology; (3) compare the ability of the 7T images that showed higher contrast for cortical plaques with that from 3T in disclosing cortical MS pathology. 7T MRI, and particularly FLASH-T2* scans, showed greater potential than 3T MRI not only in detecting cortical lesions but also in characterizing them as described histopathologically.
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