Abstract #4083

Sensitive Detection of Myelination Change in Multiple Sclerosis by McDESPOT

Jason Su¹, Hagen H. Kitzler², Michael Zeineh¹, Cyndi Harper-Little³, Andy Leung⁴, Marcelo Kremenchutzky⁵, Sean C. Deoni⁶, Brian Keith Rutt¹

¹Department of Radiology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, United States; ²Department of Neuroradiology, Technische Universitaet Dresden, Dresden, Germany; ³Robarts Research Institute, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada; ⁴Department of Diagnostic Radiology & Nuclear Medicine, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada; ⁵Department of Clinical Neurological Sciences, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada; ⁶Brown University, Providence, RI, United States

Using the whole-brain, myelin-selective MR method, multi-component Driven Equilibrium Single Pulse Observation of T1 and T2 (mcDESPOT), we examined the development of disease in a cohort of patients and controls at baseline and 1 year; the first longitudinal application of this new MR methodology. Derived quantitative measures were shown to be highly sensitive to changes in the health of the brain, having statistically significant changes in MS patients compared to normals, while the coarse EDSS clinical disability score was unable to detect a change. These measures are promising new markers for assessing the course of disease.