Development of tissue directionality-based measures of demyelination and remyelination for multiple sclerosis using structure tensor analysis
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2014-10-10
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Abstract
Changes in myelin integrity are key characteristics of many diseases including multiple sclerosis. The goal of this project was to evaluate the feasibility of structure tensor analysis, a potentially new measure of tissue directionality, to measure myelin health. Using histology and MR images obtained from a lysolecithin model of demyelination and remyelination, I quantified the coherency (anisotropy), energy (organization), and entropy (heterogeneity) of white matter in mouse spinal cords with different myelin integrity and found that demyelinated tissue had lower coherency and energy but higher entropy than tissues with intact myelin. I also tested the robustness of this technique to the change in image size in MRI and showed its practical feasibility. My findings suggest that tissues with better myelin integrity have greater alignment and anisotropy. Structure tensor analysis may have the potential to evaluate de- and re-myelination in patients with multiple sclerosis and similar disorders. Further validation is warranted.
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Neuroscience