Timothy Shepherd1,2, Ivan Kirov1,2, James S Babb1,2, Mary T Bruno2, Robert E Charlson3, Jacqueline Smith2, KAI Tobias Block1,2, Daniel K Sodickson1,2, and Noam Ben-Eliezer1,2
1Center for Advanced Imaging Innovation and Research (CAI2R), New York University School of Medicine, New York, NY, United States, 2The Bernard and Irene Schwartz Center for Biomedical Imaging, Department of Radiology, New York University School of Medicine, New York, NY, United States, 3Department of Radiology, New York University School of Medicine, New York, NY, United States
Accurate quantification of T2 values in vivo is a long-standing
challenge hampered by the inherent inaccuracy associated with rapid multi-SE sequences.
This inaccuracy is, moreover, not constant and depends on both the pulse
sequence scheme and parameter-set employed, resulting in different vendors or
scanners yielding different results! We used a recently developed novel T2
mapping technique, the EMC algorithm, to quantify T2 changes in
different brain regions of MS patients. Our results demonstrate that the
robustness of the EMC approach allows the detection of subtle, but statistically
significant T2 differences in normal appearing brain regions for MS patients.