Technical issues for the study of the optic nerve with MRI

The optic nerve is technically challenging to investigate with Magnetic Res onance Imaging due to its small size, the effect of surrounding cerebrospin al fluid and lipid, and the presence of nearby bony structures. With carefu l optimization it is possible to obtain high quality T-1 and T-2 weighted i mages for qualitative assessment, however, although quantitative measuremen ts of parameters such as relaxation times, magnetization transfer ratio and apparent diffusion coefficient may be problematic. (C) 2000 Elsevier Scien ce B.V. All rights reserved.