Abstract #1595

Optimization of T1-w/T2-w ratio for myelin using different TE and exponents

Simone Monachino¹, Gerhard S. Drenthen², Lis J.M. van den Boogaard^2,3, Marcel Breeuwer⁴, Catarina Dinis Fernandes¹, Oliver Gerlach^3,5, Svitlana Zinger¹, and Jacobus F.A. Jansen^1,2

¹Department of Electrical Engineering, Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven, Netherlands, ²Department of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine, Maastricht University Medical Center, Maastricht, Netherlands, ³Department of Neurology, Academic MS center Zuyd, Zuyderland MC, Sittard-Geleen, Netherlands, ⁴Department of Biomedical Engineering, Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven, Netherlands, ⁵Department of Neurology, Maastricht University Medical Center, Maastricht, Netherlands

Synopsis

Keywords: White Matter, Brain, Myelin, T1-w/T2-w ratio, GRASE

Motivation: Myelin allows efficient neuronal signaling but conventional imaging often lacks myelin specificity. The T1-w/T2-w ratio has been shown to enhance the myelin signal.

Goal(s): Improve the myelin signal enhancement by optimizing TE and using exponents in the T1-w^x1/GRASE^x2 ratio.

Approach: For fourteen volunteers, T1-w^x1/GRASE^x2 and myelin water fraction (MWF), a myelin-specific measure, were correlated using different TE and exponents. Repeatability was assessed in six volunteers.

Results: The parameters TE = 50 ms (± 10 ms), x1 = 0.65 (± 0.50) and x2 = 3.15 (± 0.60) provided the optimized correlation between ratio and MWF. The optimized metric showed higher correlation to MWF.

Impact: The findings show potential for improving myelin signal by using a generalized version of the T1-w/T2-w ratio which can be easily computed from structural brain images. Myelin integrity is a promising biomarker for the diagnosis and monitoring of neurological disorders.

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