Ultra-high-field Brain MRI in Multiple Sclerosis

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is the most common demyelinating disease of the central nervous system. MRI has a prominent role in diagnosing and monitoring disease and treatment and is most suitable tool to study MS pathology in vivo. In recent years there has been research has been much research on the use of 7 tesla MRI in MS. There is a better signal and contrast allowing for higher resolutions. This may contribute to, among other things, higher sensitivity for detecting MS abnormalities, not only in the white matter but also in the gray matter. Furthermore, there is probably also a better specificity. This is due to the improved visualization of MS specific pathological features such as the presence of a central vein in a lesion and paramagnetic rings. In this pilot study, the investigators study whether going beyond the field strength of 7 Tesla (7T) has additional benefits in characterizing MS lesions and to also map the limitations and challenges of scanning above 7T. More specifically, first, whether scanning above 7T might improve sensitivity to white and gray matter abnormalities in MS. Second, whether MS specific pathology, such as the central veins and the paramagnetic rings, are better visualized at the higher compared to lower field strengths. To this end, the investigators want to scan 10 relapsing-remitting MS patients for clinical field strength (3T) and also ultra-high field strengths (7T and 9.4T) at two time points (baseline and after 6 months). If it can demonstrate through this pilot study that scanning at field strengths above 7T can benefit detection of lesions or certain pathological features, the use of this research tool can help us in future studies to better understand MS.