Slowly eroding lesions in multiple sclerosis

Authors

• VV Sethi
• G Nair
• A Venkataraman
• BE Dewey
• C Shea
• T Wu
• K Yang
• JE Ohayon
• ICM Cortese
• DS Reich

Abstract

Aim To study long-term evolution of white matter lesions(WML) in multiple sclerosis (MS). Background At autopsy, ~40% of chronic MS lesions are described as “slowly expanding,” but lesion expan-sion rate cannot be directly measured. We analyzed long-term in vivo MRI data to study the evo-lution of chronic lesions with proton density-weighted (PD)MRI. Methods MRI scans were acquired (1994 to 2014) using various protocols. Images underwent rigid coreg-istration, resampling, and intensity normalization. Lesion volume (LV; n=22) was statistically cor-rected for acquisition protocol and tracked using a mixed effects model. Supratentorial brain vol-ume(STV) was calculated whenever possible and, together with sex and treatment, tested as co-variates. Results For 20 of 22 lesions studied, the LV reduced over time. The mean(SD) LV reduced form 99(81)mm3 to 55(67)mm3, 17(6) years later. The mixed effects model estimated the average loss of LV as 5.9% per year. STV atrophy correlated with LV shrinkage (r=0.579; p

Scientific Focus Area: Neuroscience

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