Thorarin A. Bjarnason1, Cornelia Laule2, Esther Leung2, J Ross Mitchell1, Piotr Kozlowski2, Alex L. MacKay2, G. R. Wayne Moore2
1University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada; 2University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada
T2 distributions created from multi-echo T2 acquisitions are sensitive to changes in various water environments. Understanding how the T2 distribution changes in the presence of specific MS pathologies may help identify those pathologies in-vivo. We used histological stains for myelin and axons to drive region of interest placement on fixed brain multi-echo T2 MR images. In addition to changes in the myelin water fraction, we observed a lengthening of the intra/extracellular water geometric mean T2 times from regions found in the histology stains having normal appearing white matter, reduced Luxol Fast Blue and reduced Bielschowsky stain intensities, to lesions.