Salem Hannoun1,2, Francoise Durand-Dubief1,3, Danielle Ibarrola2, Jean Christophe Comte2, Christian Confavreux3, Dominique Sappey-Marinier1,2
1CREATIS-LRMN, UMR5220 CNRS & U630 INSERM & Universit de Lyon, Bron, France; 2CERMEP-Imagerie du vivant, Bron, France; 3Hopital Neurologique, Groupement Hospitalier Est, Bron, France
his study aims to characterize the pathological processes and differentiate the clinical forms of multiple sclerosis (MS) patients using tract based spatial statistics (TBSS). Significant decreases of FA values were observed in numerous white matter regions of MS patients (SP, PP and RR forms) when compared to control subjects. These decreases were also more pronounced when comparing patients with more advanced forms (SP and PP) to RR patients while no significant differences were observed between SP and PP groups. This technique constitutes an important new tool to follow the disease progression and better characterize the alterations extent between patients clinical status.