Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the potential of high resolution imaging
of MS lesions in vivo comparing 7 T with conventional 1.5 T in detecting white and
gray matter lesions.
Materials and Methods: Twelve patients with clinically definite relapsing remitting MS (mDD 5 years, mEDSS
2.8) were scanned on a 7 T whole-body scanner (Magnetom 7 T, Siemens) with a 8-channel
phased-array, transmit receive head coil (Rapid Biomedical GmbH, Würzburg, Germany)
and on a 1.5 T Avanto (Siemens) with a 12-channel phased array head coil. The imaging
protocol consisted of high-resolution axial PD + T2-TSE, T2*-GRE, slice thickness
2mm, Matrix 512×384 and sagittal T1-weighted 3D-MPRAGE, Matrix 512×384, 0.6×0.5×0.6mm.
Results: The sequence parameters at 7 T had to be modified due to SAR restrictions but we
were able to keep pulse sequence parameters equivalent to the imaging protocols at
1.5 T. White matter lesions were better detected and delineated from adjacent structures
at 7 T compared to 1.5 T. 7 T revealed on T2*-GRE the perivascular migration of white
matter lesions as well as a multilayer structure in lesions larger than 10mm. Due
to the higher resolution it was possible to differentiate between juxtacortical white
matter lesions and cortical lesions.
Conclusion: Ultra-high field imaging of MS patients at 7 T was well tolerated and provided better
visualisation of MS lesions in the grey matter and better demonstrated structural
abnormalities within the MS lesion itself.
