http://link.springer.de/link/service/journals/00234/bibs/1043009/10430712.htm
Received: 10 July 2000/Accepted: 12 December 2000
Abstract Volume 43 Issue 9 (2001) pp 712-720
A. Tourbah (1)(2)(3), J. L. Stievenart (2)(4), A. Abanou (2), B. Fontaine (1)(3), E. A. Cabanis (2), O. Lyon-Caen (1)
(1) Fédération de Neurologie,
Hôpital de la Salpêtrière, 47 Boulevard de l'Hôpital,
75 651 Paris Cedex 13, France e-mail: assa.tourb@wanadoo.fr Tel.: + 33-1-42
16 17 62 Fax: + 33-1-42 16 19 65
(2) Service de Neuroradiologie,
Centre Hospitalier National d'Ophtalmologie des XV-XX, Paris, France
(3) INSERM U546, Pathologie de la
Myéline, Faculté de Médecine Pitié-Salpêtrière
(Paris VI), Paris, France
(4) Service de Biophysique et Médecine
Nucléaire, Hôpital Beaujon, Clichy, France
Abstract
MRI is the most powerful imaging
technique in managing patients with suspected or confirmed multiple sclerosis
(MS).
However, conventional MRI variables
show nonspecific abnormalities weakly correlated with clinical progression
of the disease. New techniques, now routinely available, offer better characterisation
of the pathophysiology.
We combined conventional MRI, including
lesion load, contrast enhancement and "black holes" with magnetisation
transfer and diffusion-weighted imaging and localised proton MR spectroscopy
(MRS) to study their relationship with disability, course and duration
of MS.
The variables that were the most
significantly linked to the course of the disease (relapsing remitting
versus secondary progressive) were lesion load, mean overall magnetisation
transfer ratio and apparent diffusion coefficient (MGADC), the percentage
of ADC in (PADCIMD), and out of (PADCOMD) modal distribution, and the ratio
N-acetylaspartate and creatine-containing compounds on MRS of the centrum
semiovale.
MGADC and PADCIMD were the independent
factors most related to disability and duration of disease.
Combining MRI techniques is clinically
relevant and feasible for studies of MS and may be applied to other diseases
of the central nervous system.