Advances in gradient echo myelin water imaging at 3T and 7T

Gradient echo myelin water imaging (GRE-MWI) is an MRI technique to measure myelin concentration and involves the analysis of signal decay characteristics of the multi-echo gradient echo data. The method provides a myelin water fraction as a quantitative biomarker for myelin. In this work, a new sequence and post-processing methods were proposed to generate high quality GRE-MWI images at 3T and 7T. In order to capture the rapidly decaying myelin water signals, a bipolar readout GRE sequence was designed with "gradient pairing," compensating for the eddy current effects. The flip angle dependency from the multi-compartmental T₁ effects was explored and avoided using a 2D multi-slice acquisition with a long TR. Additionally, the sequence was tested for the effects of inflow and magnetization transfer and demonstrated robustness to these error sources. Lastly, the temporal and spatial B₀ inhomogeneity effects were mitigated by using the B₀ navigator and field inhomogeneity corrections. Using the method, high-quality myelin water images were successfully generated for the in-vivo human brain at both field strengths. When the myelin water fraction at 3T and 7T were compared, they showed a good correlation (R²≥ 0.88; p < 0.001) with a larger myelin water fraction at 7T. The proposed method also opens the possibility of high resolution (isotropic 1.5 mm resolution) myelin water mapping at 7T.