Deep gray matter involvement on brain MRI scans is associated with clinical progression in multiple sclerosis.
BACKGROUND
Conventional brain MRI lesion measures have unreliable associations with clinical progression in multiple sclerosis (MS). Gray matter imaging may improve clinical-MRI correlations.


METHODS
We tested if gray matter MRI measures and conventional measures of lesions/atrophy predicted clinical progression in a 4-year longitudinal study of 97 patients with MS. Baseline and follow-up brain MRI were analyzed for basal ganglia and thalamic normalized T2 signal intensity, whole brain T2-hyperintense lesion volume, and whole brain atrophy. Logistic regression tested the ability of baseline or on-study change in MRI to predict disability progression, as reported by area under the receiver operator characteristics curve (AUC).


RESULTS
Lower caudate T2-intensity at baseline (P= .04; AUC = .69) and on-study decreasing T2-intensity in the putamen (P= .03; AUC = .70) and thalamus (P= .01; AUC = .71) were the MRI variables associated with clinical progression when regression modeling was adjusted for length of follow-up interval, baseline EDSS, disease duration, age, and sex.


CONCLUSIONS
Gray matter T2-hypointensity, suggestive of excessive iron deposition is associated with worsening disability in patients with MS. Gray matter MRI assessment may be able to capture neurodegenerative aspects of the disease, with more clinical relevance than derived from conventional MRI measures. J Neuroimaging 2009;19:3-8.
Neema
Mohit
M
Department of Neurology, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Partners MS Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA.
Arora
Ashish
A
Healy
Brian C
BC
Guss
Zachary D
ZD
Brass
Steven D
SD
Duan
Yang
Y
Buckle
Guy J
GJ
Glanz
Bonnie I
BI
Stazzone
Lynn
L
Khoury
Samia J
SJ
Weiner
Howard L
HL
Guttmann
Charles R G
CR
Bakshi
Rohit
R
D000328:Adult; D019540:Area Under Curve; D001921:Brain / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D018450:Disease Progression; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007501:Iron / Q000378:metabolism*; D016015:Logistic Models; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009103:Multiple Sclerosis / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D012189:Retrospective Studies
D007501:Iron