Quantitative diffusion weighted imaging measures in patients with multiple sclerosis

Diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) has been proposed as a sensitive measure of disease severity capable of detecting subtle changes in gray matter and white matter brain compartments in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS). However, DWI has been applied to the study of MS clinical subtypes in only a...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:NeuroImage (Orlando, Fla.) Fla.), 2007-07, Vol.36 (3), p.746-754
Main Authors: Tavazzi, Eleonora, Dwyer, Michael G., Weinstock-Guttman, Bianca, Lema, Jordan, Bastianello, Stefano, Bergamaschi, Roberto, Cosi, Vittorio, Benedict, Ralph H.B., Munschauer, Frederick E., Zivadinov, Robert
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescent
Adult
Aged
Automation
Brain - pathology
Brain atrophy
Clinical disability
Cohort Studies
Diffusion
Diffusion imaging
Diffusion Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Entropy
Female
Humans
Image Processing, Computer-Assisted
Lesion volume
Male
Mean diffusivity
Middle Aged
MRI
Multiple sclerosis
Multiple Sclerosis - classification
Multiple Sclerosis - pathology
Neurologic Examination
Neuropsychological Tests
Pathology
Prospective Studies
Studies
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Summary:Diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) has been proposed as a sensitive measure of disease severity capable of detecting subtle changes in gray matter and white matter brain compartments in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS). However, DWI has been applied to the study of MS clinical subtypes in only a few studies. The objective of this study was to demonstrate the validity of a novel, fully automated method for the calculation of quantitative DWI measures. We also wanted to assess the correlation between whole brain (WB)-DWI variables and clinical and MRI measures of disease severity in a large cohort of MS patients. For this purpose we studied 432 consecutive MS patients (mean age 44.4±10.2 years), 16 patients with clinically isolated syndrome (CIS) and 38 normal controls (NC) using 1.5 T brain MRI. Clinical disease subtypes were as follows: 294 relapsing–remitting (RR), 123 secondary-progressive (SP) and 15 primary-progressive (PP). Mean disease duration was 12±10 years. Mean Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS) was 3.3±2.1. Brain parenchymal fraction (BPF), gray matter fraction (GMF) and white matter fraction (WMF) were calculated using a fully automated method. Mean parenchymal diffusivity (MPD) maps were created. DWI indices of peak position (PP), peak height (PH), MPD and entropy (ENT) were obtained. T2- and T1-lesion volumes (LV), EDSS, ambulation index (AI) and nine-hole peg test (9-HPT) were also assessed. MS patients had significantly lower BPF (d=1.26; p
ISSN:1053-8119
1095-9572
DOI:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2007.03.056