summary: This study demonstrates that lesional and non-lesional magnetization transfer ratio values (a parameter that estimates the amount of tissue damage occurring in multiple sclerosis) can be significantly less pronounced in benign multiple sclerosis than in a cohort of RR patients at their earliest disease stages, suggesting that brain tissue damage is milder in benign multiple sclerosis than in early RR disease. This can be due to an extraordinary beneficial response to demyelination of benign patients and may represent the evidence that benign multiple sclerosis truly exists and might be differentiated from other forms of this illness.

authors: De Stefano N, Battaglini M, Stromillo ML, Zipoli V, Bartolozzi ML, Guidi L, Siracusa G, Portaccio E, Giorgio A, Sorbi S, Federico A, Amato MP.

source: Brain. 2006 Aug;129(Pt 8):2008-16. Epub 2006 Jun 30.

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