Clinical application of multi-contrast 7-T MR imaging in multiple sclerosis: increased lesion detection compared to 3 T confined to grey matter.

摘要

Seven-Tesla MRI demonstrated new pathological features of multiple sclerosis (MS) using T2-weighted sequences. However, a clinical MRI protocol at 7 T has never been investigated. We evaluated the clinical value of 7-T MRI by investigating the sensitivity of lesion detection compared with 3 T.Thirty-eight MS patients and eight healthy controls underwent multi-contrast MRI using 3D T1-weighted (3D-T1w), 2D dual-echo T2-weighted (2D-T2w) and 3D fluid-attenuated inversion recovery (3D-FLAIR) at 3 and 7 T. Images were analysed for focal lesions, which were counted and categorised according to anatomical location. The study was approved by the institutional review board.Lesion-wise analysis showed increased lesion counts in cortical grey matter (GM) at 7 T of 91, 75 and 238 % for 3D-T1w, 2D-T2w and FLAIR sequences, respectively. Patient-wise analysis confirmed this for 2D-T2w and FLAIR (P?