Abstract #0470

Calcification and iron deposition in basal ganglia structures: reversible and irreversible transverse relaxation rates at 7T

Mukund Balasubramanian^1,2, Robert V. Mulkern^1,2, and Jonathan R. Polimeni^2,3,4

¹Department of Radiology, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, MA, United States, ²Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States, ³Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Department of Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Charlestown, MA, United States, ⁴Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, United States

Gradient-Echo Sampling of the Spin Echo (GESSE) data were acquired at 7T in 16 volunteers (ages: 23-87 years). In globus pallidus and putamen, the reversible and irreversible transverse relaxation rates derived from this data varied with age in a manner largely consistent with prior postmortem studies of iron concentration. The exception to this was when calcifications appeared to be present, leading to outliers in the reversible (but not irreversible) relaxation rates. Our results suggest that consideration of both reversible and irreversible transverse relaxation rates may reveal valuable information about tissue microstructure and may complement measurements based primarily on phase contrast.

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