Luca Y. Li1,
Cheryl R. McCreary1, 2, Fiona Costello, 3,
Richard Frayne, 3
1Seaman
Family MR Research Centre, Foothills Medical Centre, Alberta Health Services,
Calgary, Alberta, Canada; 2Departments of Radiology and Clinical
Neurosciences, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada; 3Hotchkiss
Brain Institute, Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Accumulation of iron in deep grey matter structures has been shown to correlate with physical and cognitive and dysfunction in multiple sclerosis. MR susceptibility imaging could provide an objective surrogate marker for accumulation of iron. We compared normalized signal, SNR and CNR of the caudate nucleus, putamen, globus pallidus, and thalamus between T2* gradient echo and SWAN sequences on our 3T GE scanner. 13 subjects with multiple sclerosis and 5 healthy controls participated. Results suggest that changes in signal are more distinguishable on T2* GRE.