Quantitative Myelin Water Imaging Using Short TR Adiabatic Inversion Recovery Prepared FSE (STAIR-FSE) and EPI (STAIR-EPI) Sequences

Myelin water imaging (MWI) techniques have shown great promise for the early detection of demyelination and monitoring the effectiveness of neuroprotective therapies in remyelination. The purpose of this study is to develop new clinical transitional MWI techniques, which employ a short TR adiabatic inversion recovery (STAIR) preparation in combination with clinical FSE and EPI acquisitions. Quantified apparent myelin water fractions (aMWFs) show myelin loss in lesions and normal-appearing white matter (NAWM) in patients with multiple sclerosis compared to normal white matter (NWM) in healthy volunteers, demonstrating their potential in clinical practice.