FLAIR3Phase: a new synthetic MRI contrast for paramagnetic rim lesions detection in multiple sclerosis

Chronic active multiple sclerosis (MS) lesions are visible on susceptibility-based MRI as paramagnetic rim lesions (PRL); these lesions are characterized by severe tissue damage and strongly correlate with disease severity. PRL assessment is usually performed manually on unwrapped-filtered phase images. However, PRL assessment is associated with high intra/inter-rater variability due to the poor visibility of PRL and to the lack of standardized imaging protocols/guidelines for their detection. Here, we propose a new synthetic contrast called FLAIR3Phase to augment PRL assessment workflow and to reduce rater variability.