Novel 3D myelin weighted imaging in the cervical spinal cord using myelin-sensitive inversion recovery (MySIR): a feasibility study

Motivation: Myelin water fraction (MWF) is a promising method for quantitative evaluation of myelin function in the brain. On the other hand, myelin-sensitive inversion recovery (MySIR) sequence is thought to show spinal myelin structure. Goal(s): To evaluate the feasibility of MySIR imaging for myelin visualization in the cervical spinal cord. . Approach: MySIR images were compared with MWF as the gold standard. Results: We have demonstrated that MySIR showed similar results to MWF in evaluating the distribution of myelin in the spine. MySIR may be useful for evaluating the distribution of myelin. Impact: MySIR gave us a novel contrast between grey matter and white matter. Additionally, MySIR showed similar results to MWF in evaluating myelin. We demonstrated the feasibility of MySIR for evaluating the distribution of myelin in cervical spine.