The effective transverse relaxation rate (R2*) is increasingly used in quantitative MRI, due to its sensitivity to iron and myelin content of the tissue. Separating the contributions from both sources is of particular interest in relation to multiple sclerosis. This work attempts to factor out contribution from myelin using orientation information derived from dMRI, and magnetization transfer saturation (MTS). Application of such correction to a group of multiple sclerosis patients and a control group, suggests that sensitivity of R2* to iron might be improved by accounting for fiber orientation in WM, while incorporation of MTS might not show clear benefit.
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