R2* relaxation and susceptibility measurements are both candidate biomarkers for studying brain change. The relative variability of R2* and quantitative susceptibility mapping (QSM) approaches was studied in six deep brain regions in 182 normal subjects (18-89 years). The variability of R2* measures (average coefficient of variation, CoV: 0.33, mean ± standard deviation over regions) was found to be significantly less than QSM measurements (average CoV: 5.72). The variability in R2* measurements was found to vary with age, unlike QSM which showed no age effects. The increased variability observed in QSM measurements, however, may obscure smaller age effects.
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