Abstract #2653

3D FLAIR-ED: 3D Fluid Attenuated Inversion Recovery for Enhanced Detection of Lesions in Multiple Sclerosis

Paul Polak¹, Robert Zivadinov^1,2, Guy Poloni¹

¹Buffalo Neuroimaging Analysis Center, Department of Neurology, University at Buffalo, State University of New York, Buffalo, NY, United States; ²The Jacobs Neurological Institute, Department of Neurology, University at Buffalo, State University of New York, Buffalo, NY, United States

Detection of brain tissue lesions via T2-weighted imaging is standard clinical practice in diagnosing and prognosis of multiple sclerosis. However, these methods suffer from the clinical/radiological paradox, in that poor or no correlation is found between clinical outcomes and MR metrics. Improving lesion sensitivity in MR techniques may help resolve this conflict. We propose an experimental method to optimize lesion contrast in a 3D FLAIR sequence using a region of interest analysis to optimize sequence parameters. The derived 3D FLAIR imaging sequence is superior to current clinical 2D and 3D FLAIR sequences, in both detection power and resolution.