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Abstract #2072

What Does (Quantitative) MRI of the MS Cortical Gray Matter Measure? a Post Mortem Imaging Exploration.

Alexandra Marion Seewann1,2, Hugo Vrenken3,4, Evert-Jan Kooi5, Paul van der Valk5, Dirk Knol6, Chris Polman1, Petra Pouwels4, Frederik Barkhof3, Jeroen Geurts, 3,5

1Neurology, VU University medical center, Amsterdam, Netherlands; 2Neurology, Medical University Graz, Graz, Austria; 3Radiology, VU University medical center, Amsterdam, Netherlands; 4Physics and Medical Technology, VU University medical center, Amsterdam, Netherlands; 5Pathology, VU University medical center, Amsterdam, Netherlands; 6Epidemiology and Biostatistics, VU University medical center, Amsterdam, Netherlands


Only few lesions in cortical gray matter (CGM) of multiple sclerosis (MS) patients can be visualized with conventional MRI. Quantitative MRI techniques are more sensitive to cortical damage, but the histopathological correlates of quantitative MRI changes in the MS CGM are unclear. We aimed to define the underlying pathology of cortical quantitative MRI changes, and to compare MRI visible and invisible lesions by histopathology. 16 brain slices from 10 chronic MS patients were imaged with qualitative and quantitative MRI at 1.5T. Regions of interests were correlated with histopathology.