To enhance the detection of diffuse pathological alterations associated with multiple sclerosis, high-resolution MR spectroscopic imaging was performed at 7T, together with clinical MRI, in 68 MS patients with different levels of clinical disability and 20 healthy controls. Increased myo-inositol, a marker of neuroinflammation-induced astrogliosis, was found in white matter regions appearing normal on clinical MRI, even in subgroup of MS patients with no evidence of clinical disability. Myo-inositol/N-acetylaspartate ratio in the NAWM and cortical gray matter correlated with EDSS, suggesting that reactive astrogliosis and axonal injury play important role in the evolution of MS-related disability.
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