Peng Sun1, Yong Wang1, Ying-Jr Chen2, Anne Cross3, Sheng-Kwei Song1
1Radiology, Washington University in St. Louis, Saint Louis, MO, United States; 2Chemistry, Washington University in St. Louis, Saint Louis, MO, United States; 3Neurology, Washington University in St. Louis, Saint Louis, MO, United States
DTI has been demonstrated to reflect the optic nerve axonal and myelin damage and predict function in optic neuritis patients. However, inflammation associated cell infiltration and vasogenic edema confounds DTI findings. In the present study, a newly developed diffusion basis spectrum imaging (DBSI) was employed to resolve the complex pathologies in optic nerves from experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) mice. The Carr-Purcell-Meiboom-Gill (CPMG)-T2 was also employed to estimate the extent of demyelination by measuring myelin water fraction (MWF) of the nerve. The current results suggest that DBSI may be used to identify and quantitate demyelination, as well as inflammation-related vasogenic edema. DBSI holds promise to resolve inflammation and edema, factors which have confounded DTI interpretation.