A novel atlas of absolute myelin water content: the baseline for studying inflammatory demyelinating diseases

Quantitative brain atlases can be combined in multiparametric characterisations of the same template voxel with a number of microstructure-sensitive quantities, potentially enabling earlier and more specific characterisation of changes caused by disease. We combine in this study two quantitative atlases, absolute water content and myelin water fraction, to generate a novel atlas describing absolute myelin water content. This is relevant as a baseline for investigating changes in inflammatory diseases involving both demyelination and brain edema. The accompanying relaxometric parameters R2* and R2 are combined in an atlas of the reversible relaxation rate R2’. Fibre tract-specific distributions and correlations are found.