Luca Y. Li1, Cheryl R. McCreary2, 3, Fiona Costello4, 5, Richard Frayne2, 3
1Seaman Family MR Research Centre, Calgary, Alberta, Canada; 2Radiology, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada; 3Seaman Family MR Research Centre, Foothills Medical Centre, Calgary, Alberta, Canada; 4Clinical Neurosciences, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada; 5Surgery (Opthalmology), University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Accumulation of iron in deep grey matter structures has been shown to correlate with physical and cognitive and dysfunction in multiple sclerosis. MR susceptibility imaging could provide an objective surrogate marker for accumulation of iron. We compared normalized signal, SNR and CNR of the caudate, putamen, globus pallidus, and thalamus between T2* gradient echo and susceptibility-weighted angiography (SWAN) sequences on our 3 T scanner. Eleven subjects with multiple sclerosis and 5 healthy controls participated. Results suggest that although the SNR was lower for T2* GRE it may be better for detection of changes because it provides better CNR and lower variance in SNR than SWAN.
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