Patients' stratification and correlation of brain magnetic resonance imaging parameters with disability progression in multiple sclerosis.
OBJECTIVE
The objective was to correlate the change in the lesion load (LL) and brain atrophy in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) with progression of clinical disability, represented by the Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS), and to test if stratification of patients according to magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) criteria can increase the predictive ability of MRI for MS clinical development.


METHODS
181 patients with clinically definite relapsing-remitting MS underwent MRI for a period of up to 5 years. Grouping of patients according to the LL value at the study entry revealed a substantial increase in the Spearman rank correlation coefficient R.


RESULTS
For the low LL cohort of patients, we found a statistically significant correlation (R up to -0.71 with p < 0.01) of a later increase in the EDSS score (years 4 and 5) with increased brain atrophy in the first 2 years. For the high LL group, we found a statistically significant correlation (R up to 0.72 with p < 0.01) of a later increase in the EDSS score (years 4 and 5) with an increase in the LL value in the first year.


CONCLUSIONS
We conclude that stratification of patients according to the MRI criterion (LL) can increase the predictive ability of MRI.
Vaneckova
Manuela
M
Department of Radiology, First Faculty of Medicine, General Teaching Hospital, Charles University in Prague, Prague, Czech Republic. man.van@post.cz
Seidl
Zdenek
Z
Krasensky
Jan
J
Havrdova
Eva
E
Horakova
Dana
D
Dolezal
Ondrej
O
Burgetova
Andrea
A
Masek
Martin
M
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001284:Atrophy; D001921:Brain / Q000473:pathology* / Q000503:physiopathology; D018450:Disease Progression; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D020529:Multiple Sclerosis, Relapsing-Remitting / Q000473:pathology* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D055815:Young Adult