The cerebral subcortical deep gray matter nuclei (DGM) are a common, early, and clinically-relevant site of atrophy in multiple sclerosis (MS) and a recent study comparing 3T to 1.5T MRI scans for obtaining DGM volumes found that 3T showed a somewhat higher sensitivity and reliability. 14 patients with MS [age (mean, range) 50.2 (32.0–60.8) years, disease duration 18.4 (8.2–35.5) years, Expanded Disability Status Scale score 3.1 (0–6), median 3.0] and 15 normal controls (NC) underwent brain 3D T1-weighted paired scan-rescans at 1.5T and 3T. DGM segmentation was obtained by the fully automated FSL-FIRST pipeline. Both raw and normalized volumes were derived. Researchers found:

• DGM volumes were generally higher at 3T vs 1.5T in both groups.
• For raw volumes, 3T showed slightly better sensitivity than 1.5T for detecting DGM atrophy in MS vs NC.
• For normalized volumes, 3T but not 1.5T detected atrophy in the globus pallidus in the MS group.
• Across all subjects, scan-rescan reliability was generally very high for both platforms, showing slightly higher reliability for some DGM volumes at 3T.