Steffi Dreha-Kulaczewski1, Knut Brockmann1, Marco Henneke1, Claudia Zuercher1, Peter Dechent2, Jutta Gaertner1, Gunther Helms2
1Department of Pediatrics and Pediatric Neurology, Georg August University, Goettingen, Germany; 2MR-Research in Neurology and Psychiatry, Georg August University, Goettingen, Germany
Myelin sensitive quantitative techniques including MT (3D FLASH) and DTI (single-shot STEAM) were applied to five pediatric patients with defined hypomyelinating leukodytrophies (mitochondrial cytopathy, PMLD, HABC) in order to i) validate MT and FA in clinical settings, ii) identify myelin patterns for further characterization of undefined disorders. Using PD- and T1-weighted references, the percentage MT saturation caused by a single MT-pulse was obtained. All patients revealed reduced MT saturation and FA. In comparison to FA maps MT saturation maps had higher spatial resolution and better contrast to allow discrimination of distinct patterns and may help to further differentiate undefined leukodystrophies.