An Approach to Comparing Accuracies of Two Flair MR Sequences in the Detection of Multiple Sclerosis Lesions in the Brain in the Absence of Gold Standard

The presented methodology may be useful in assessing the value of new clinical imaging protocols or techniques in the context of replacing existing ones, when the absolute ground truth is not available, and in determining changes in disease progression in follow-up studies. Our results suggest that the sequence with shorter TE should be preferred because it generates relatively fewer false positives. The finding is consistent with results of previous computer simulation studies.