The role of non-conventional MR techniques to study multiple sclerosis patients.
Conventional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) lacks pathological specificity to the heterogeneous substrates of multiple sclerosis (MS) lesions and is not able to detect subtle, disease-related changes in the normal-appearing white matter (NAWM). As a consequence, the correlation between MRI findings and the long-term evolution of MS is moderate at best. To overcome the limitations of conventional MRI, new quantitative magnetic resonance (MR) techniques, such as cell-specific imaging, magnetization transfer imaging (MTI), proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS), diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) and functional MR imaging (fMRI) have all been recently applied to the study of MS. These techniques should provide more accurate and pathologically specific estimates of the MS lesion burden than conventional MR and should improve our understanding of the mechanisms leading to MS-related irreversible disability.
Rovaris
M
M
Neuroimaging Research Unit, Department of Neuroscience, Scientific Institute and University Ospedale San Raffaele, via Olgettina 60, 20132 Milan, Italy.
Comi
G
G
Filippi
M
M
D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D009682:Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy; D009103:Multiple Sclerosis / Q000473:pathology*