El Sayed, Mohamed El Bashir Mustafa; (1999) Assessment of the myelination of cerebral tissue using MRI. Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).

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Abstract

The aim of this study was to assess the myelination process of cerebral tissue in vivo using different Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) techniques at high field strength and to suggest the optimum MRI technique for the correlation of myelination with the gestational age in the rat brain. Several different techniques have been implemented in order to assess brain maturation. The first approach has been to quantitatively measure the Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) Ti and T2 relaxation times of brain gray and white matter which is shown to provide a certain degree of tissue characterization (Davis et al 1981). The second approach has been to measure the Apparent Diffusion Coefficient (ADC) which has proven to be of value in cerebral white matter which has been shown to demonstrate anisotropy of water diffusion (Chevert et al 1990). Sprague Dawley (S/D) rats with different age groups ranging from 7 days to adult were used for this study. Studies were carried out in a 7T, 20 cm clear bore magnet (Bruker Biospec). Data were acquired using two different diameter inductively coupled saddle coils. Imaging pulse sequences used were the Spin Echo (SE) and the Stimulated Echo (STEAM). Images were obtained with sufficient resolution to permit clear delineation of selected regions of interest in both gray and white matter. T1 values did not show any significant difference with age in the selected regions of interest whereas T2 and ADC values showed a marked change in signal intensity as the animals age increase. The results obtained have demonstrated the feasibility of accurate high resolution quantitative MRI measurements in S/D rat brain. These techniques may be applied in the assessment of myelin related or white matter pathologies.

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