Jochen G. Hirsch1,2, Yvonne Naegelin1, Michael Amann2, Pascal Kuster2, Stefan Traud2, Kerstin Bendfeldt2, Ernst Wilhelm Radue2, Ludwig Kappos1, Achim Gass1
1Dept. of Neurology, University Hospital Basel, Basel, Switzerland; 2Dept. of Neuroradiology, University Hospital Basel, Basel, Switzerland
Pathological heterogeneity in MS still makes it difficult defining correlates between clinical status on the one hand, and structural tissue changes on the other hand. We investigate the contribution of the recently proposed approach of TBSS to characterize cohorts of MS patients in more detail with respect to structural integrity as assessed by DTI. This study demonstrates that FA values strongly depend on T2w lesionload. Interestingly however, the TBSS analysis showed a difference of FA values in both high-lesion-load groups with different EDSS ranges (0-2 vs. 3-7). The high EDSS group showed lower FA almost exclusively in both pyramidal tracts.