Erick Canales Ph.D.
Title: Quantifying brain microstructure with multi-component T2 relaxometry
Abstract:
Myelin is a lipid-rich substance that surrounds the axons in the brain, which is essential forthe proper functioning of the nervous system. Myelin water imaging is a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) method that can be used to quantify and visualize myelination in the brain and spinal cord in vivo. The signal measured with a multi-echo T2 (MET 2 )relaxometry sequence can be decomposed into various T2 components, including that originated by water molecules trapped between the lipid bilayers of myelin. The correct estimation of this component provides a myelin-specific MRI biomarker to monitor brain changes in cerebral white matter. Myelin quantification has important implications for understanding various neurodegenerative diseases, including multiple sclerosis. In this talk, I will review the basic principles for this technique - from the MRI acquisition and biophysical modeling to the numerical methods used for solving the resulting inverse problem - with a particular focus on the research conducted by our team on developing novel methodologies for estimating T 2 spectra from MET 2 data.