J-Donald Tournier1,2, Rui Pedro A. G. Teixeira1,2, Maria Murgasova1,2, A. David Edwards2,3, Joseph V. Hajnal1,2, and Serena J. Counsell2,3
1Biomedical Engineering, King's College London, London, United Kingdom, 2Centre for the Developing Brain, King's College London, London, United Kingdom, 3Perinatal Imaging and Health, King's College London, London, United Kingdom
Myelin mapping is of great interest, particularly to study brain development. However, existing methods are time consuming and/or noisy. We propose a simple method to obtain semi-quantitative maps of myelin from routinely acquired T1-, T2- and proton density weighted images, by modelling the signal as a linear combination of non-exchanging tissue types: lipid, tissue water and free water. The method is calibrated empirically from the signal intensities in the data themselves. We show promising results in neonatal scans, showing the expected pattern of myelination in infants at term-equivalent age.
