Christopher D.J. Sinclair1,
2, Jasper M. Morrow1, Robert L. Janiczek3,
Michael G. Hanna1, Mary M. Reilly1, Tarek A. Yousry1,
2, Rebecca S. Samson4, Nikolaus Weiskopf5,
Antoine Lutti5, David L. Thomas2, Xavier Golay6,
John S. Thornton1, 2
1MRC
Centre for Neuromuscular Diseases, UCL Institute of Neurology, London, United
Kingdom; 2Department of Brain Repair and Rehabilitation, UCL
Institute of Neurology, London, United Kingdom; 3United Kingdom,
GlaxoSmithKline, Brentford, Middlesex, United Kingdom; 4Department
of Neuroinflammation, UCL Institute of Neurology, London, United Kingdom; 5Wellcome
Trust Centre for Neuroimaging, UCL Institute of Neurology, London, United
Kingdom; 6Department of Brain Repair and Rehabilitation,
University College London, London, United Kingdom
Quantitative imaging of skeletal muscle may provide important markers of disease for clinical trials. We used quantitative magnetization transfer (qMT) imaging and the IDEAL-CPMG fat-water separation method to quantify the muscle water-component T2 relaxation times and muscle fat-fraction in the calves of patients with inclusion body myositis. A range of pathologies were observed including isolated T2 elevation, isolated fat-fraction increases or both. QMT parameters, such as the bound pool fraction f, reflected the variations and f was decreased in muscle displaying isolated edema. Further investigation of these relationships may allow the identification of muscles involved early in the disease.