Lauren Wallis1, LiSze Chow1, Martyn NJ Paley1, Hardeep Singh Mudhar2, Simon Hickman3, Nigel Hoggard1
1Academic Radiology, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, Yorkshire, UK; 2Histopathology, STH NHS Trust, Sheffield, Yorkshire, UK; 3Neurology, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, Yorkshire, UK
It is often assumed by radiologists in MR studies that the optic nerve is surrounded by a 2mm cylinder of CSF. Investigation of anatomy and contrast studies using a range of inversion times suggest the optic nerve has 3 main compartments with shorter T1 than CSF. CSF is only a small faction of the overall nerve bundle. Simulations using a three compartment model agree with in vivo measurements at 3T.