summary: In MS, a disease characterised by the appearance of inflammatory-demyelinating lesions in the white matter, some abnormalities, generally diffuse and not well-defined, in the brain tissue which does not contain the typical lesions can also be seen with the conventional MRI techniques. The meaning of these diffuse abnormalities is not fully understood. In this article the authors have studied the brains (post-mortem) of people with MS and have looked at these regions containing diffuse abnormalities. They concluded that these regions reflect the chronic loss of myelin and axons. As these regions are likely to be contributing to disability in MS, the authors proposed that these abnormalities could be considered as MRI markers of disease progression.

authors: Seewann A, Vrenken H, van der Valk P, Blezer EL, Knol DL, Castelijns JA, Polman CH, Pouwels PJ, Barkhof F, Geurts JJ

source: Arch Neurol. 2009 May;66(5):601-9

weblink: click here

category: Imaging

related research news: click here

glossary: