The Study of Normal Infants Myelination by Diffusion Tensor Imaging and Magnetization Transfer Imaging

Objective To evaluate the significance of diffusion tensor imaging and magnetization transfer imaging in assessing normal infants white matter myelination.Materials and Methods 30 cases of normal infants were performed by conventional MR imaging,diffusion tensor imaging and magnetization transfer imaging.Apparent diffusion coefficients(ADCiso),fractional anisotropy(FA),and magnetization transfer ratios(MTRs)were measured in the 13 WM ROIs.A whole brain MTR,ADCiso,FA was computed by using the means of all ROIs.Results The correlation of ADCiso with age was negative.No difference of correlation of FA with ages except the cerebellum,the correlation of MTR with age was positive.Conclusion DTI and MTI have a potential role for detecting myelination in the normal infants.