Shannon Kolind1,2, Sean Deoni2,3,
Rakesh Sharma1,4, Melanie E. Lord4, Steven Knight5,
Kevin Talbot4, Heidi Johansen-Berg1, Martin R. Turner1,4
1FMRIB Centre, University
of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom; 2Department of Neuroimaging,
Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, London, United Kingdom; 3Division
of Engineering, Brown University, Providence, RI, United States; 4Oxford
University Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, John Radcliffe
Hospital, Oxford, United Kingdom; 5OCMR, University of Oxford, Oxford,
United Kingdom
Whole-brain multi-component relaxometry was applied to different phenotypes of motor neuron disease - amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and primary lateral sclerosis (PLS), in comparison to healthy controls, as a potential surrogate marker of demyelination and inflammatory activity. With the aims of furthering understanding of pathology and phenotype variability, we found a distinct pattern of involvement between ALS and PLS. There was evidence of widespread inflammation in ALS, and more focal regions of demyelination in PLS. These preliminary findings may have relevance to the marked difference in prognosis between ALS and PLS.