title: [Review of the novelties presented at the 29th Congress of the European Committee for Treatment and Research in Multiple Sclerosis (ECTRIMS) (II)].
abstract: The most relevant data presented at the 29th Congress of the European Committee for Treatment and Research in Multiple Sclerosis (ECTRIMS), held in October 2013 in Denmark, were summarised at the sixth edition of the Post-ECTRIMS Expert Meeting, held in Madrid in October 2013, resulting in this review, which is being published in three parts. This second part of the Post-ECTRIMS review focuses on diagnostic imaging and differential diagnosis, the clinical and paraclinical monitoring of neurodegeneration, progression and disability, and functional imaging and neural connectivity. It is clear that conventional multiple sclerosis sequences remain essential for the diagnosis, differential diagnosis and disease monitoring, that new MRI techniques help to assess the neurodegenerative process, and that some of the new sequences are more specific to neuroaxonal injury. Very high field magnetic resonance imaging allows better understanding of the lesion load, distribution and heterogeneity of the lesions, and positron emission tomography studies offer new insight into the patho-physiology of the disease. Functional imaging and neural connectivity studies show that there is cortical reorganisation in multiple sclerosis, whose equilibrium with structural damage is responsible for the impairment.
authors.affiliation: Fundacion IMABIS, Hospital Universitario Carlos Haya, 29190 Malaga, Espana.
authors.forename: Óscar
authors.initials: Ó
authors.lastname: Fernández
authors.forename: José C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Álvarez-Cermeño
authors.forename: Carmen
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Arnal-García
authors.forename: Rafael
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Arroyo-González
authors.forename: Lluís
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Brieva
authors.forename: M Carmen
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Calles-Hernández
authors.forename: Bonaventura
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Casanova-Estruch
authors.forename: Manuel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Comabella
authors.forename: Juan A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: García-Merino
authors.forename: Guillermo
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Izquierdo
authors.forename: José E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Meca-Lallana
authors.forename: María del Mar
authors.initials: Mdel M
authors.lastname: Mendibe-Bilbao
authors.forename: Delicias
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Muñoz-García
authors.forename: Javier
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Olascoaga
authors.forename: Pedro
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Oliva-Nacarino
authors.forename: Celia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Oreja-Guevara
authors.forename: José  M
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Prieto
authors.forename: Lluís
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Ramió-Torrentà
authors.forename: Lucía
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Romero-Pinel
authors.forename: Albert
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Saiz
authors.forename: Alfredo
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Rodríguez-Antigüedad
mesh_terms: D035843:Biomedical Research; D003226:Congresses as Topic; D006801:Humans; D009103:Multiple Sclerosis / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000628:therapy*