Improved detection of focal cortical lesions using 7Â T magnetisation transfer imaging in patients with multiple sclerosis

We found that 7 T MTR, in less than 10 min scanning time, was able to detect cortical lesions. In this study we found that 7 T MTR was better in detecting intracortical lesions in comparison with 7 T T2⁎, 7 T MPRAGE, and 3 T 3D DIR. since only a very few intracortical lesions were detected in healthy controls in our blind assessment, it is likely that the lesions detected represent focal grey matter demyelination. High resolution MT imaging has especially revealed cortical changes that have not been recognised by other MR sequences. MTR maps were noisier than MPRAGE, T2⁎ and DIR, but also better in localising cortical lesions. As MTR is more pathologically specific than other sequences in detecting tissue myelination, it raises the possibility that high resolution MTR will be able to demonstrate cortical remyelination in vivo.