Histopathological Validation of Microstructure-Informed Susceptibility Source Separation (MI-SSS) for Brain Iron and Myelin Quantification

Motivation: Myelin and iron carry significant roles in several neurodegenerative disease processes. The development of noninvasive imaging modalities for myelin and iron quantification and validation of these modalities are important steps in clinical MRI research. Goal(s): MI-SSS is developed for the improved estimation of brain myelin and iron and here it is aimed to validate MI-SSS maps with histopathological quantification techniques. Approach: An ex vivo whole brain is scanned; myelin and iron biomarkers maps are reconstructed and the results are correlated against histopathological findings. Results: Both susceptibility maps showed significant correlation with histopathological myelin and iron quantifications presenting accurate performance of MI-SSS. Impact: Myelin and iron quantification carry significant clinical importance for diagnosis and monitoring of neurodegenerative diseases. MI-SSS is developed to provide an improved and practical framework for this purpose. Here, the MI-SSS is validated against gold standard histopathological findings.