Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic disease characterized by demyelination and neuronal/axonal pathology. Based on postmortem MRI-pathology correlations lesions found on conventional MRI do not exhibit expected demyelination. There is a need for imaging modalities that have better specificity for myelin, axonal density and axonal health. We compare the properties of fast variants of myelin-specific modalities (myelin water imaging, quantitative magnetization transfer and visualization of short transverse relaxation component) and of axon-specific measures from neurite orientation dispersion and density imaging. These comparisons constitute steps toward developing better imaging biomarkers for MS pathology.
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