summary: Although MS has been traditionally considered as an inflammatory-demyelinating disease of the white matter (WM) of the brain and spinal cord, an increasing number of studies have demonstrated that the grey matter (GM) is also a major player in this disease. However, the MRI techniques currently used in clinical practice are not able to detect to what extent the GM is damaged in MS. In this article the authors show that very high field MRI techniques enable detection of not only cortical GM lesions, but also myelin content and neuronal density, in post-mortem MS brain, very accurately. This study represents a breakthrough in the study of the brain in MS by MRI techniques.

authors: Schmierer K, Parkes HG, So PW, An SF, Brandner S, Ordidge RJ, Yousry TA, Miller DH

source: Brain. 2010 Jan 31

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category: Imaging

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