Abstract #1403

Cervical cord myelin abnormality is associated with clinical disability in multiple sclerosis

Irene Margaret Vavasour^1,2, Lisa Eunyoung Lee³, Adam V Dvorak^2,4, Shawna Abel³, Poljanka Johnson³, Stephen Ristow³, Cornelia Laule^1,2,4,5, Roger Tam^1,6, David KB Li^1,3, Nathalie Ackermans³, Alice Schabas³, Jillian Chan³, Ana-Luiza Sayao³, Virginia Devonshire³, Robert Carruthers³, Anthony Traboulsee³, and Shannon H Kolind^1,2,3,4

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

Damage to the spinal cord is common in multiple sclerosis (MS) and is an important contributor to physical disability. While spinal cord cross sectional area (CSA) is correlated with disability, CSA is a non-specific measure of tissue damage. The addition of cervical cord myelin water imaging, which measures myelin-related abnormalities, to cord area resulted in better correlations with MS clinical disability than cord CSA alone. In particular, myelin abnormality + CSA was best correlated with 9-hole peg test which requires more fine motor skills and therefore could be strongly influenced by damage to white matter.

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