Phase-Cycled Balanced Steady-State Free Precession Multi-Parametric Mapping in Relapsing-Remitting Multiple Sclerosis

Motivation: Multiple sclerosis (MS) requires frequent monitoring to detect lesions or alterations in normal-appearing tissue microstructure. Goal(s): Compare tissue-specific metrics like T1, T2, and frequency response asymmetry indices (AI) between healthy controls (HC) and patients with relapsing-remitting MS (RRMS). Approach: Three HC and nine RRMS were scanned at 3T. Quantitative metrics were analyzed by assessing mean values and dependencies on tissue anisotropy and white matter (WM) fiber orientation. Results: Mean relaxometry differences between normal-appearing WM in HC and RRMS as well as RRMS lesion could be observed. A trend towards reduced orientation dependency was apparent for T1, T2, and AI, especially for RRMS lesions. Impact: This study marks the first application of MP-qMRI with pc-bSSFP imaging for assessing tissue changes in RRMS patients.