A pilot study comparing myelin measurements from myelin water imaging and C-11-PIB PET in multiple sclerosis

MRI-based myelin water fraction (MWF) and PET-based Pittsburgh compound B (PiB) imaging both have po-tential to measure myelin in multiple sclerosis (MS). We characterised the differences in MWF and PiB binding in MS lesions relative to normal-appearing white matter and assessed the correlation between MWF and PiB binding in 11 MS participants and 3 healthy controls within 14 white matter regions of interest. Both PiB binding and MWF were reduced in MS lesions relative to NAWM, and a modest within subject correlation between MWF and PiB binding was found. This pilot study shows that MWF and PET-PiB provide different information about myelin loss in MS.