On the performance of multi-compartment relaxometry for myelin water imaging (MCR-MWI) – test-retest repeatability and inter-protocol reproducibility

•Multi-compartment relaxometry for myelin water imaging (MCR-MWI) can be performed with data comprising as few as 3 flip angles without introducing substantial bias or instability in the fitting procedure.•MCR-MWI is a reproducible measure of myelin water fraction (MWF) and incorporating DWI can further improve the measurement reproducibility.•MCR-MWI allows the acquisition of whole-brain 1.5 mm isotropic MWF maps in 9 min, even without the use of advanced model-based reconstructions.•Small MWF bias can present in cross-protocol comparison if the MT effect is not constant across GRE protocols (e.g., different TRs or flip angle combinations).•Compartmental relaxation parameters derived from MCR-MWI possess complimentary information beyond myelin water concentration.