Human gray matter: feasibility of single-slab 3D double inversion-recovery high-spatial-resolution MR imaging

The purpose of this study was to develop and prospectively evaluate the feasibility of a single-slab three-dimensional (3D) double inversion-recovery, or DIR, sequence for magnetic resonance imaging at 1.5 T. The study was approved by the local ethics committee, and informed consent was obtained from six healthy control subjects (one woman, five men; age range, 26-47 years) and two patients with multiple sclerosis (one woman, aged 39; one man, aged 56). Gray matter (GM)-only images were obtained by selectively suppressing cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and white matter (WM) signals. Whole-brain high-spatial-resolution 3D images (1.2 x 1.2 x 1.3 mm) were acquired within 10 minutes. Cortical and deep GM structures were clearly delineated from WM and CSF, and there were regional differences in GM signal intensity. No flow artifacts from blood or CSF were observed. These GM images with high spatial resolution are suitable to identify cortical pathologic conditions and can potentially be used for segmentation purposes to determine cortical thickness or volume.