Clinical implementation of Multiplied, Added, Subtracted and/or Divided (MASDIR) sequences on white matter lesions in Multiple Sclerosis

Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is a demyelinating progressive chronic disease. MR imaging is a key diagnostic tool that allows long-term monitoring of disease progression. Since T1 values can identify clinically relevant tissue properties such as increased water content, myelin loss and changes in microstructure, we assessed the whole brain using Multiplied, Added, Subtracted and/or Divided Inversion Recovery (MASDIR) in patients with MS in an attempt to improve contrast and quantify T1 of lesions. We show that MASDIR is a clinically reliable, easy to implement technique that greatly increases T1 contrast and simultaneously provides quantitative T1 maps.