We report on feasibility of a short but comprehensive 3T brain MRI protocol in Friedreich ataxia. The multi-parametric protocol includes measures of anatomy, iron content, several indices of white matter, and brain metabolites. The scan session, lasting less than 60 minutes, was tolerated well by all 8 patients who had varying degrees of ataxia symptomatology, and provided good quality imaging data for the majority of sequences and patients. This protocol allows non-invasive quantitative characterization of progressive neurodegeneration in cerebral and cerebellar structures in patients with Friedreich ataxia suggesting the potential for rich, longitudinal phenotyping in this population.
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