Abstract #3400
Quantitative Imaging of Magnetization Transfer in the Myelin Mutant Shaking Pup
Samsonov A, Field A, Alexander A, Duncan I
University of Wisconsin
Quantitative MT imaging (qMTI) allows estimation of several parameters governing MT effects in tissues, and may potentially improve the specificity of MTI. We report first qMTI results in the shaking (sh) pup, one of the myelin mutant animal models of dysmyelinating disease in humans. The putative myelin-related parameters, bound pool fraction and cross-relaxation rate, appear markedly decreased in the WM of the sh pup relative to the control. Longitudinal relaxation rate is markedly decreased in the sh pup; this observation contradicts any implications of axonal specificity attributed to T1 relaxation based on the T1 black holes of chronic MS lesions.