Abstract #0524

Does myelin content heterogeneity in the spinal cord reflect disability in multiple sclerosis?

Lisa Eunyoung Lee¹, Adam Dvorak², Hanwen Liu^2,3, Shawna Abel¹, Poljanka Johnson¹, Irene M. Vavasour⁴, Cornelia Laule^2,3,4,5, Roger Tam^4,6, David K.B. Li^1,4, Jillian Chan¹, Robert Carruthers¹, Anthony Traboulsee¹, and Shannon H. Kolind^1,2,3,4

¹Medicine, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada, ²Physics and Astronomy, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada, ³International Collaboration on Repair Discoveries (ICORD), Vancouver, BC, Canada, ⁴Radiology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada, ⁵Pathology & Laboratory Medicine, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada, ⁶Biomedical Engineering, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada

The spinal cord is inherently more difficult to image than brain resulting in fewer MRI studies in multiple sclerosis (MS) patients. We used GRASE-derived myelin water fraction (MWF) mean (myelin content) and standard deviation (SD; myelin content heterogeneity) to better understand MS cervical spinal cord pathology compared to healthy controls. We found significant differences in cervical spinal cord MWF SD between progressive MS, relapsing-remitting MS and healthy controls. Further, MWF SD was correlated with disability measures in progressive MS. Our findings suggest that MWF SD as a measure of myelin abnormality in cervical cord relates to disability in MS.

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