Multicompartment Imaging of the Brain Using a Comprehensive MR Imaging Protocol

In this study, we developed a comprehensive MR imaging protocol to quantify all the major components of the brain. This protocol includes four different kinds of sequences: a magnetization transfer prepared Cones (MT-Cones) for two-pool MT modeling, a short-TR adiabatic inversion-recovery prepared Cones (STAIR-Cones) for myelin water imaging, a proton-density weighted Cones (PDw-Cones) for total water imaging, and a highly T2 weighted Cones (T2w-Cones) for extracellular water imaging. Using a combination of these techniques, we successfully quantified the proton fractions of brain macromolecules, myelin water, intracellular water, and extracellular water components in three healthy volunteers with a 3T clinical scanner.