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Abstract #2095

Towards Spinal Cord Microstructure Mapping with the Neurite Orientation Dispersion and Density Imaging

Francesco Grussu1, Torben Schneider1, Hugh Kearney1, Hui Zhang2, David H. Miller1, Olga Ciccarelli3, Daniel C. Alexander2, Claudia Angela M. Wheeler-Kingshott1

1NMR Research Unit, Queen Square MS Centre, Department of Neuroinflammation, UCL Institute of Neurology, London, England, United Kingdom; 2Department of Computer Science and Centre for Medical Image Computing, University College London, London, England, United Kingdom; 3NMR Research Unit, Queen Square MS Centre, Department of Brain Repair and Rehabilitation, UCL Institute of Neurology, London, England, United Kingdom

We investigate the feasibility of Neurite Orientation Dispersion Imaging (NODDI) in the spinal cord. NODDI is a new technique that promises novel markers of neuronal density and dispersion, which may be informative in diseases like Multiple Sclerosis (MS) beyond routine Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI). Here we compare NODDI with standard DTI metrics in healthy volunteers and MS patients. NODDI disentangles the microscopic sources of DTI measures and provides better discrimination between very coherent and less coherent neural tissue structures. Further work will improve the acquisition protocol and study NODDI in a larger patient cohort.

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