Jennifer Elizabeth Dixon1, Emma C.
Tallantyre2, Ian Donaldson2, Trudy Owens3,
Nikos Evangelou2, Peter G. Morris1
1Sir Peter Mansfield Magnetic Resonance
Centre, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, United
Kingdom; 2Department of Clinical Neurology, Nottingham University
Hospital NHS Trust, Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, United Kingdom; 3Department
of Economics, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, United
Kingdom
The
detection of demyelinating lesions using MRI plays an important role in the
diagnosis of MS. However, demyelinating brain lesions can be difficult to
distinguish from small foci of cerebral ischaemia on MR images. Here we show
that using ultra-high-field MRI we can reliably demonstrate the perivenous
orientation of MS lesions and in doing so distinguish them from ischaemic brain
lesions. The observation that T2* image contrast can be employed to
differentiate between ischaemic and demyelinating lesions at ultra-high field
offers hope that similar techniques could be adapted for application on
clinically available systems.