Diffusion MRI can help track multiple sclerosis disability progression

Monday, December 2 | 12:15 p.m.-12:45 p.m. | M5A-SPNR-11 | Learning Center

Diffusion MRI is a clinically feasible method for monitoring disease progression in multiple sclerosis patients, a team from NYU Grossman School of Medicine in New York City has found.

"Unlike structural MRI, diffusion MRI (diffusion tensor imaging and diffusion kurtosis imaging) of normal-appearing white matter is sensitive to changes associated with cognitive decline caused by muscular sclerosis over time," wrote a team led by Valentin Nikolaeyevich Stepanov, MD, of NYU Grossman School of Medicine in New York City in its study abstract. The study findings will be displayed in a Monday afternoon poster session.

The group conducted a study that investigated microstructural changes in 36 multiple sclerosis patients' white matter using diffusion tensor (DTI) and diffusion kurtosis imaging (DKI). The team compared diffusion metrics to common clinical markers (i.e., volumetrics and lesion load) to assess the metrics' ability to detect brain changes associated with multiple sclerosis disease progression.

Study participants underwent a diffusion MRI exam with an acquisition time of 10 minutes. The researchers then extracted DTI and DKI metrics and assessed patients' cognitive health using the Symbol Digit Modalities Test (SDMT).

Stepanov and colleagues found the following:

• Significant correlations between changes in the SDMT and diffusion MRI metrics.
• Fractional anisotropy in the superior longitudinal fasciculus showed a positive correlation with cognitive decline.
• Mean kurtosis in overall white matter and radial kurtosis in the posterior thalamic radiation and superior longitudinal fasciculus correlated with cognitive decline.
• No significant correlations between changes in SDMT and the volumes of interest in cortical gray matter or WM, or lesion load and cognitive decline.

"[Our] study highlights the potential of diffusion MRI as a clinically feasible method offering new insights for monitoring disease progression in muscular sclerosis patients," the researchers concluded.