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Abstract #0909

Histological metrics confirm microstructural characteristics of NODDI indices in multiple sclerosis spinal cord

Francesco Grussu 1 , Torben Schneider 1 , Richard L. Yates 2 , Mohamed Tachrount 3 , Jia Newcombe 4 , Hui Zhang 5 , Daniel C. Alexander 5 , Gabriele C. DeLuca 2 , and Claudia A. M. Wheeler-Kingshott 1

1 NMR Research Unit, Department of Neuroinflammation, Queen Square MS Centre, UCL Institute of Neurology, London, England, United Kingdom, 2 Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, England, United Kingdom, 3 Department of Brain Repair and Rehabilitation, UCL Institute of Neurology, London, England, United Kingdom, 4 NeuroResource, UCL Institute of Neurology, London, England, United Kingdom, 5 Department of Computer Science and Centre for Medical Image Computing, University College London, London, England, United Kingdom

Neurite orientation dispersion and density imaging (NODDI) is a model-based diffusion MRI technique that has shown promising results in the multiple sclerosis (MS) brain. Here, we investigate its potential for the spinal cord, which can have a high lesion load in MS. We perform NODDI analysis on an ex vivo specimen of MS lumbar spinal cord at 9.4 T, and compare results to quantitative histological features from the same sample. We conclude that NODDI replicates the trends of the histological indices, detecting specific features of abnormal tissue, and therefore is potentially useful for spinal cord imaging in MS.

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