Whole-Brain Voxel-Wise Analysis of Myelin Water Volume Fraction in Multiple Sclerosis

Sean CL Deoni¹

The ability to distinguish affected, but normal appearing, white matter tissue has significant clinical application to MS and other de-myelinating disorders. Currently, this may be accomplished using histogram analysis, but at the expense of spatial information. Here we demonstrate a patient-specific approach, involving the comparison of voxel-wise myelin volume fraction values, obtained using the mcDESPOT multi-component relaxometry technique, to a reference population-matched atlas. We demonstrate the ability to visualize areas of significantly reduced myelin fraction within tissue that appears normal on conventional T1 or T2 weighted scans.