High-Field MRI of Brain Iron

Recent developments in high-field MRI have provided opportunities to detect iron in human brain with much improved sensitivity. The combination of increased magnetic field strength with multi-channel detectors has made it possible to routinely obtain images at about 300 μm resolution. These images can be sensitized to tissue iron by exploiting the improved magnetic susceptibility contrast at high field. Together, these techniques have the potential to map the fine scale distribution of iron in human brain at the level of fiber bundles and cortical laminae, and may aid in the understanding of the role and transport of iron in normal brain and in disease. In this chapter, we will look at these techniques in detail and present some examples of high-field MRI data of human brain.