Jie Luo1, Anne H. Cross2, Robert Schmidt3, Alexander L. Sukstanskii4, Dmitriy A. Yablonskiy4
1Chemistry, Washington University, St.Louis, MO, United States; 2Neurology, Washington University in St. Louis; 3Pathology, Washington University in St. Louis; 4Radiology, Washington University in St. Louis
Although most imaging research in Multiple Sclerosis has focused on the white matter, pathology is also found in gray matter, including cerebral cortex. Conventional MRI techniques that are routinely used to detect MS lesions are T1 and T2 weighted spin-echo images and FLAIR, which detect white matter lesions well, but miss most cortical lesions. Herein, we show that the gradient echo plural contrast imaging technique (GEPCI), that already proved useful in quantifying tissue damage in WM lesions in MS, can also detect cortical lesions. Data are obtained using ex vivo MS brain tissue.