Magnetic resonance imaging
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Tissue contrast can be enhanced by dividing T1-weighted (T1w) images by T2-weighted (T2w) images to map the so-called T1w/T2w ratio, which has become an increasingly popular technique for quantifying brain tissue changes associated with neurodevelopment, aging, and a variety of neurodegenerative diseases. However, although it is self-evident that T1w/T2w ratios increase with the amount of T2-weighting in the T2w image - which is determined by the echo time (TE), all else being equal - longer TEs also reduce the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the T2w images, and it is not clear how these SNR characteristics affect the reliability of T1w/T2w measurements. Therefore, the current study systematically investigated how different amounts of T2-weighting affected T1w/T2w measurements in order to determine whether there is an optimal amount of T2-weighting. ⋯ Analyses of 12 anatomically defined brain regions revealed that both the mean and standard deviation of the T1w/T2w measurements increased exponentially with TE of the T2w images, and that T2w images with TE ≈ 120-160 ms yielded the most consistent/reproducible contrast between white matter ROIs and the whole-brain T1w/T2w signal. Furthermore, comparisons between T1w/T2w measurements and multi-component T2-relaxation myelin water fractions (MWFs) in the same brain regions revealed that T2w images with TE ≥ 160 ms drastically reduced the degree of correlation between T1w/T2w measurements and MWF. Overall, these findings suggest that: 1) there is a substantial trade-off between increased T1w/T2w contrast (based on longer TEs for the T2w images) and the reliability of quantitative T1w/T2w signals; and 2) the optimal TE for T2w GRASE scans is between 120 ms and 160 ms for calculating T1w/T2w ratios.
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The cingulate cortex (CC) is a brain region that plays a key role in pain processing, but CC abnormalities are not unclear in patients with trigeminal neuralgia (TN). The purpose of this study was to determine the central causal mechanisms of TN and the surrounding brain structure in healthy controls and patients with TN using 7 Tesla (T) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Whole-brain parcellation in gray matter volume and thickness was assessed in 15 patients with TN and 16 healthy controls matched for sex, age, and regional variability using T1-weighted imaging. ⋯ Cortical volumes were negatively correlated with pain duration in transverse and inferior temporal areas, and thickness was also negatively correlated with pain duration in superior frontal and parietal areas. The cACC and PCC gray matter atrophy occurred in the patients with TN, and pain duration was associated with frontal, parietal, and temporal cortical regions. These results suggest that the cACC, PCC but not the rACC are associated with central pain mechanisms in TN.