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Abstract #0581

Ultra-high resolution MR spectroscopic imaging at 7 Tesla in Multiple Sclerosis: Initial results and comparison with clinical MR imaging

Wolfgang Bogner1,2, Eva Heckova1, Bernhard Strasser3, Gilbert Hangel1, Assunta Dal-Bianco4, Elisabeth Springer1, Michal Povazan5,6, Petra Hnilicova7, Paulus Rommer8, Fritz Leutmetzer8, Siegfried Trattnig1,2, and Stephan Gruber1

1High-field MR Center, Department of Biomedical Imaging and Image-guided Therapy, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria, 2Christian Doppler Laboratory for Clinical Molecular MR Imaging, Vienna, Austria, 3Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Department of Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States, 4Center for Brain Research, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria, 5Russell H. Morgan Department of Radiology and Radiological Science, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, United States, 6F. M. Kirby Research Center for Functional Brain Imaging, Kennedy Krieger Institute, Baltimore, MD, United States, 7Comenius University in Bratislava, Martin, Slovakia, 8Department of Neurology, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria

Conventional T1/T2-weighted MRI has become indispensable for Multiple Sclerosis(MS) diagnosis and treatment monitoring, although it reflects only general macroscopic tissue damage. MRSI allows the additional mapping of pathological processes in MS on a biochemical level. In 39 relapsing-remitting MS patients and an age/sex-matched control group(n=10), we show that clinically feasible ultra-high resolution (100x100 matrix) FID-MRSI in ~6min reveals even well-delineated (sub-)cortical MS lesions down to ~3mm in regions inconspicuous on conventional MRI. Regions of mIns were often larger than on FLAIR and NAA maps, suggesting that mIns increase may be an earlier imaging biomarker for neuroinflammation/lesion development than conventional MRI.

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