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Abstract #2261

Microanatomical Correlates of Multi-Exponential T2 & Quantitative MT in Pathological Rat Spinal White Matter

Kevin D. Harkins1,2, William M. Valentine3, Daniel F. Gochberg1,2, Mark D. Does1,4

1Institute of Image Science, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, United States; 2Radiology & Radiological Sciences, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, United States; 3Pathology, Vanderbilt University; 4Biomedical Engineering, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, United States


Multi-exponential T2 (MET2) and quantitative magnetization transfer (qMT) provide measures of myelin content but also differentially report on other characteristics of white matter micro-anatomy. This study reports MET2 and qMT findings in rat spinal cord with hexachlorophene(HCP)-induced lesions. The myelin water fraction and macromolecular pools size ratio measured by MET2 and qMT, respectively, decrease with the introduction of HCP, and third T2 component is introduced. Future work will employ numerical simulations to correlate HCP-induced microstructural lesions with MET2 and qMT measurements.