Meeting Banner
Abstract #1645

T2 Monitoring at 3T for Canine Model of Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy

Donghoon Lee1, Zejing Wang2, Joshua Park1, Stephen Tapscott2, Martin Kushmerick1

1University of Washington, Seattle, WA, United States; 2Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, WA, United States


Gene therapy is one of promising treatment approaches for Duchenne muscular dystrophy. One challenge is to noninvasively monitor treatment responses and thereby to evaluate treatment efficacy. Canine MR imaging was conducted to noninvasively monitor muscle changes due to disease progression and to assess the treatment response after adeno-associated virus (AAV) vector mediated gene therapy. Elevation of T2 was observed for dystrophic muscles comparing to normal muscles and reduction of T2 was monitored for the treated muscles. The results show T2 would be a potential MR marker to study muscle integrity and the treatment efficacy.