Christian Labadie

Myelin and iron concentration in the human brain: A quantitative study of MRI contrast

During the last five years ultra-high-field magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has enabled an unprecedented view of living human brain. Brain tissue contrast in most MRI sequences is known to reflect mainly the spatial distributions of myelin and iron. These distributions have been shown to overlap significantly in many brain regions, especially in the cortex. It is of increasing interest to distinguish and identify cortical areas by their appearance in MRI, which has been shown to be feasible in vivo. Parcellation can benefit greatly from quantification of the independent contributions of iron and myelin to MRI contrast. Recent studies using susceptibility mapping claim to allow such a separation of the effects of myelin and iron in MRI. We show, using post-mortem human brain tissue, that this goal can be achieved. After MRI scanning of the block with appropriate T1 mapping and T2* weighted sequences, we section the block and apply a novel technique, proton induced X-ray emission (PIXE), to spatially map iron, phosphorus and sulfur elemental concentrations, simultaneously with 1μm spatial resolution. Because most brain phosphorus is located in myelin phospholipids, a calibration step utilizing element maps of sulfur enables semi-quantitative ex vivo mapping of myelin concentration. Combining results for iron and myelin concentration in a linear model, we have accurately modeled MRI tissue contrasts. Conversely, iron and myelin concentrations can now be estimated from appropriate MRI measurements in post-mortem brain samples.

Myelin water mapping by spatially regularized longitudinal relaxographic imaging at high magnetic fields

Magnetic resonance T1‐weighted images are routinely used for human brain segmentation, brain parcellation, and clinical diagnosis of demyelinating diseases. Myelin is thought to influence the longitudinal relaxation commonly described by a mono‐exponential recovery, although reports of bi‐exponential longitudinal relaxation have been published. The purpose of this work was to investigate if a myelin water T1 contribution could be separated in geometrically sampled Look‐Locker trains of low flip angle gradient echoes.

Data sampling in MR relaxation

Four time spacing methods for the sampling of magnetic resonance relaxation data are investigated: linear, logarithmic, geometric with time offset, and pure geometric spacing methods. They are compared with the respective normalized root-mean-square errors of the four parameters of biexponential inversion recoveries. Linear spacing was found to be inappropriate for NMR. Geometric spacing may be the method of choice to detect an unexpected exponent when sampling is performed from 1/28.7 of the shortest time constant up to five times the longest one.

Temperature dependence of water diffusion pools in brain white matter

Water diffusion in brain tissue can now be easily investigated using magnetic resonance (MR) techniques, providing unique insights into cellular level microstructure such as axonal orientation. The diffusive motion in white matter is known to be non-Gaussian, with increasing evidence for more than one water-containing tissue compartment. In this study, freshly excised porcine brain white matter was measured using a 125-MHz MR spectrometer (3T) equipped with gradient coils providing magnetic field gradients of up to 35,000 mT/m. The sample temperature was varied between -14 and +19 °C. The hypothesis tested was that white matter contains two slowly exchanging pools of water molecules with different diffusion properties. A Stejskal-Tanner diffusion sequence with very short gradient pulses and b-factors up to 18.8 ms/μm(2) was used. The dependence on b-factor of the attenuation due to diffusion was robustly fitted by a biexponential function, with comparable volume fractions for each component. The diffusion coefficient of each component follows Arrhenius behavior, with significantly different activation energies. The measured volume fractions are consistent with the existence of three water-containing compartments, the first comprising relatively free cytoplasmic and extracellular water molecules, the second of water molecules in glial processes, and the third comprising water molecules closely associated with membranes, as for example, in the myelin sheaths and elsewhere. The activation energy of the slow diffusion pool suggests proton hopping at the surface of membranes by a Grotthuss mechanism, mediated by hydrating water molecules.

Center-out echo-planar spectroscopic imaging with correction of gradient-echo phase and time shifts

A procedure to prevent the formation of image and spectral Nyquist ghosts in echo‐planar spectroscopic imaging is introduced. It is based on a novel Cartesian center‐out echo‐planar spectroscopic imaging trajectory, referred to as EPSICO, and combined with a correction of the gradient‐echo phase and time shifts. Processing of homogenous sets of forward and reflected echoes is no longer necessary, resulting in an optimized spectral width. The proposed center‐out trajectory passively prevents the formation of Nyquist ghosts by privileging the acquisition of the center k‐space line with forward echoes at the beginning of an echo‐planar spectroscopic imaging dwell time and by ensuring that all k‐space lines and their respective complex conjugates are acquired at equal time intervals. With the proposed procedure, concentrations of N‐acetyl aspartate, creatine, choline, glutamate, and myo‐inositol were reliably determined in human white matter at 3 T. Magn Reson Med, 2013.

Erratum to Myelin water mapping by spatially regularized longitudinal relaxographic imaging at high magnetic fields (Magn Reson Med 2014;71:375–387)

Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany. Laboratoire Spectrom etrie Ionique et Mol eculaire, Universit e ClaudeBernard, Lyon, France. Faculty of Physics and Earth Sciences, University of Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany. Biomedical Engineering, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio, USA. Advanced Imaging Research Center, Oregon Health and Science University, Portland, Oregon, USA. Department of Radiology, University of M€ unster, M€ unster, Germany.