Hui Jing Yu1, Lauren B. Krupp2,
Christopher Christodoulou3, Mark E. Wagshul4
1Biomedical Engineering,
Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY, United States; 2Neurology,
Stony Brook University; 3Neurology, Stony Brook University, Stony
Brook, NY; 4Gruss Magnetic Resonance Research Center, Albert
Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY
The goal of this was to explore diffusion abnormalities in relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis, and whether such image-based evidence of tissue damage is associated with the presence and severity of cognitive impairment or depression. Tract-based spatial statistics and threshold-free cluster enhancement analysis were used to compare DTI-derived metrics between patients and healthy subjects. Lower fractional anisotropy was found in patients compared across the tract skeleton. In areas with reduced FA, increased mean diffusion was driven by increased radial diffusivity. Significant correlations were observed between abnormal FA in patients and neurocognitive impairment, but not with depression measures.