23Na, a quadrupolar nucleus, exhibits bi-exponential relaxation in brain tissue. This study aimed to compare fast and slow sodium T2* relaxation times obtained using a 3D multi-echo radial sequence, to measures of tissue microstructure derived from advanced diffusion MRI and proton T1 mapping at 7T. We observed significant correlations between sodium T2* relaxation times and all measures of fibre and cellular density and T1. The results suggest that relative contribution of quadrupolar and dipolar relaxation pathways are related to the underlying tissue microstructure.
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