Paola Valsasina1, Maria A. Rocca, Dusan Damjanovic, Sarlota Mesaros2, Mark A. Horsfield3, Tatjana Stosic-Opincal4, Jelena Drulovic2, Giancarlo Comi5, Massimo Filippi1
1Neuroimaging Research Unit, Institute of Experimental Neurology, San Raffaele Scientific Institute and Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, Milan, Italy, Italy; 2Clinic of Neurology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Belgrade, Belgrade, Yugoslavia; 3Medical Physics Group, Department of Cardiovascular Sciences, University of Leicester, Leicester, United Kingdom; 4Clinic of Radiology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Belgrade, Belgrade, Yugoslavia; 5Department of Neurology, San Raffaele Scientific Institute and Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, Milan, Italy, Italy
We applied an active surface method to perform a voxel-based analysis of cervical cord atrophy and lesion location in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) and different phenotypes. Sagittal dual-echo and MP-RAGE cervical cord scans were acquired from 89 MS patients and 31 healthy controls [HC]. Patients with clinically isolated syndrome showed no cord atrophy, while primary-progressive (PP) MS had diffuse cord atrophy vs. HC. Several clusters of cord atrophy were found in secondary-progressive MS vs. relapsing-remitting MS, benign MS, and PPMS. Cord lesions were more frequent in the posterior cord portion and in the cord segments from C1 to C4.