Abstract #0581

Ultra-high resolution MR spectroscopic imaging at 7 Tesla in Multiple Sclerosis: Initial results and comparison with clinical MR imaging

Wolfgang Bogner^1,2, Eva Heckova¹, Bernhard Strasser³, Gilbert Hangel¹, Assunta Dal-Bianco⁴, Elisabeth Springer¹, Michal Povazan^5,6, Petra Hnilicova⁷, Paulus Rommer⁸, Fritz Leutmetzer⁸, Siegfried Trattnig^1,2, and Stephan Gruber¹

¹High-field MR Center, Department of Biomedical Imaging and Image-guided Therapy, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria, ²Christian Doppler Laboratory for Clinical Molecular MR Imaging, Vienna, Austria, ³Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Department of Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States, ⁴Center for Brain Research, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria, ⁵Russell H. Morgan Department of Radiology and Radiological Science, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, United States, ⁶F. M. Kirby Research Center for Functional Brain Imaging, Kennedy Krieger Institute, Baltimore, MD, United States, ⁷Comenius University in Bratislava, Martin, Slovakia, ⁸Department of Neurology, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria

Conventional T1/T2-weighted MRI has become indispensable for Multiple Sclerosis(MS) diagnosis and treatment monitoring, although it reflects only general macroscopic tissue damage. MRSI allows the additional mapping of pathological processes in MS on a biochemical level. In 39 relapsing-remitting MS patients and an age/sex-matched control group(n=10), we show that clinically feasible ultra-high resolution (100x100 matrix) FID-MRSI in ~6min reveals even well-delineated (sub-)cortical MS lesions down to ~3mm in regions inconspicuous on conventional MRI. Regions of mIns were often larger than on FLAIR and NAA maps, suggesting that mIns increase may be an earlier imaging biomarker for neuroinflammation/lesion development than conventional MRI.

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