Magnetization transfer SWIFT MRI consistently detects histologically verified myelin loss in the thalamocortical pathway after a traumatic brain injury in rat.

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is associated with various neurocognitive deficits, and rapid assessment of the damage is potentially important for the prevention and treatment of these deficits. Imaging assessment of mild or moderate damage outside the primary lesion area after TBI, however, remains challenging. Magnetization transfer (MT) has clearly been underutilized in imaging the damage caused by TBI. Here, we applied the MT ratio (MTR) using sweep imaging with Fourier transformation (SWIFT) to study microstructural tissue damage in the thalamocortical pathway outside the primary lesion in a lateral fluid percussion injury rat model of TBI, 5 months after injury. MTR was decreased in layers VIb-IV of the barrel cortex and related subcortical areas, mainly indicating demyelination, which was verified by histology. The largest MTR change in the cortex was in layer VIb (-8.2%, pFDR  = 0.01), and the largest MTR change in the subcortical areas was in the caudal-most portion of the internal capsule (-11.0%, pFDR  < 0.005). These areas exhibited the greatest demyelination and substantial cellularity attributed to gliosis. Correlation analysis of group-averaged results from the subcortical areas revealed an excellent correlation of MTR with myelin (r2  = 0.94, p < 0.001), but no correlation with increased cellularity as detected by Nissl staining. Thus, MTR using SWIFT can be a valuable tool for the assessment of subtle changes after TBI in both cortical and subcortical areas.

Phase imaging in brain using SWIFT.

The majority of MRI phase imaging is based on gradient recalled echo (GRE) sequences. This work studies phase contrast behavior due to small off-resonance frequency offsets in brain using SWIFT, a FID-based sequence with nearly zero acquisition delay. 1D simulations and a phantom study were conducted to describe the behavior of phase accumulation in SWIFT. Imaging experiments of known brain phase contrast properties were conducted in a perfused rat brain comparing GRE and SWIFT. Additionally, a human brain sample was imaged. It is demonstrated how SWIFT phase is orientation dependent and correlates well with GRE, linking SWIFT phase to similar off-resonance sources as GRE. The acquisition time is shown to be analogous to TE for phase accumulation time. Using experiments with and without a magnetization transfer preparation, the likely effect of myelin water pool contribution is seen as a phase increase for all acquisition times. Due to the phase accumulation during acquisition, SWIFT phase contrast can be sensitized to small frequency differences between white and gray matter using low acquisition bandwidths.

Detection of calcifications in vivo and ex vivo after brain injury in rat using SWIFT.

Calcifications represent one component of pathology in many brain diseases. With MRI, they are most often detected by exploiting negative contrast in magnitude images. Calcifications are more diamagnetic than tissue, leading to a magnetic field disturbance that can be seen in phase MR images. Most phase imaging studies use gradient recalled echo based pulse sequences. Here, the phase component of SWIFT, a virtually zero acquisition delay sequence, was used to detect calcifications ex vivo and in vivo in rat models of status epilepticus and traumatic brain injury. Calcifications were detected in phase and imaginary SWIFT images based on their dipole like magnetic field disturbances. In magnitude SWIFT images, calcifications were distinguished as hypointense and hyperintense. Hypointense calcifications showed large crystallized granules with few surrounding inflammatory cells, while hyperintense calcifications contained small granules with the presence of more inflammatory cells. The size of the calcifications in SWIFT magnitude images correlated with that in Alizarin stained histological sections. Our data indicate that SWIFT is likely to better preserve signal in the proximity of a calcification or other field perturber in comparison to gradient echo due to its short acquisition delay and broad excitation bandwidth. Furthermore, a quantitative description for the phase contrast near dipole magnetic field inhomogeneities for the SWIFT pulse sequence is given. In vivo detection of calcifications provides a tool to probe the progression of pathology in neurodegenerative diseases. In particular, it appears to provide a surrogate marker for inflammatory cells around the calcifications after brain injury.