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Abstract #0382

mcDESPOT-Derived Demyelination Volume in Multiple Sclerosis Patients Correlates with Clinical Disability and Senses Early Myelin Loss

Hagen H. Kitzler1, Jason Su2, Michael Zeineh2, Sean C. Deoni3, Cyndi Harper-Little4, Andrew Leung5, Marcelo Kremenchutzky6, Brian K. Rutt2

1Dept. of Neuroradiology, Technische Universitaet Dresden, Dresden, SN, Germany; 2Department of Radiology, Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA, United States; 3Department of Engineering, Brown University, Providence, RI, United States; 4Imaging Laboratories, Robarts Research Institute, London, ON, Canada; 5Department of Diagnostic Radiology and Nuclear Medicine, University of Western Ontario, London, ON; 6Department of Clinical Neurological Sciences, University of Western Ontario, London, ON


We applied the multi-component Driven Equilibrium Single Pulse Observation of T1 and T2 (mcDESPOT) method to a population of Multiple Sclerosis patients and normal controls, to assess its ability to characterize brain tissue demyelination across a spectrum of MS disease severity. We found strong correlations between Demyelinated Volume and EDSS (clinical disability score), as well as with Normalized Brain Volume (measure of total brain atrophy). We also found a significant difference between Demyelinated Volume in normal controls vs the subset of Clinical Isolated Syndrome patients, demonstrating the ability of mcDESPOT to sensitively detect early pre-MS changes.