Gadolinium-enhanced MRI is a sensitive and objective means to monitor disease activity in multiple sclerosis (MS). We evaluated the interobserver agreement and the value of observer training in reporting enhancing lesions from serial MRI. Scans of 16 MS patients were evaluated by five inexperienced and five experienced observers before and after consensus formation and training. The number of l...

IMPORTANCE There is no single test that is diagnostic for multiple sclerosis (MS), and existing diagnostic criteria are imperfect. This can lead to diagnostic delay. Some patients require multiple (sometimes invasive) investigations, and extensive clinical follow-up to confirm or exclude a diagnosis of MS. A diagnostic biomarker that is pathologically specific for the inflammatory demyelination...

Progression of multiple sclerosis (MS) results in brain lesions caused by white matter inflammation. MS lesions have various shapes, sizes and locations, affecting cognitive abilities of patients to different extents. To facilitate the visualization of the brain lesion distribution, we have developed a software tool to build 3D surface models of MS lesions. This tool allows users to create 3D m...

Purpose: Multiple sclerosis (MS) has long been considered a pure white matter (WM) disease. In recent years, greater attention is paid to cortical pathology in MS. However, detection of cortical lesions is complicated by low contrast on MRI between lesions and surrounding tissue, the relatively low image resolution, and the confounding signal from WM and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). Double invers...

Extracellular matrix (ECM) molecules play important roles in the pathobiology of the major human central nervous system (CNS) inflammatory/demyelinating disease multiple sclerosis (MS). This mini-review highlights some recent work on CNS endothelial cell interactions with vascular basement membrane ECM as part of the cellular immune response, and roles for white matter ECM molecules in demyelin...

Cortical demyelination can be extensive in chronic multiple sclerosis (MS) patients. Cortical lesions are not associated with lymphocyte infiltration, blood-brain barrier disruption, or complement deposition; therefore, their pathogenesis is unclear. We analyzed the extent and cellular composition of leptomeningeal inflammatory infiltrates and their relationship with cortical demyelinated lesio...

OBJECTIVES To investigate whether blood-brain barrier (BBB) permeability is disrupted in normal appearing white matter in MS patients, when compared to healthy controls and whether it is correlated with MS clinical characteristics. METHODS Dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI was used to measure BBB permeability in 27 patients with MS and compared to 24 matched healthy controls. RESULTS Permeabili...

Lhermitte's sign (LS) is a transient symptom consisting of an electric shock-like sensation radiating ascending along the spinal cord during forward flexion neck. It may be associated with sensory complaints such as hypo or hyperesthesia. Although it more common in cervical lesions, can also seen less frequently thoracic lesions. LS classified one paroxysmal pain syndromes multiple sclerosis (M...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Persistently hypointense lesions on T1-weighted MR images have been shown to correlate with the amount of axonal damage and clinical disability in multiple sclerosis (MS) patients. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether diffusion coefficient D(av) and fractional anisotropy (FA) are able to detect quantifiable differences among three groups of focal nonactive...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Perfusion measurement in multiple sclerosis (MS) may cast light on the disease pathogenesis and lesion development since vascular pathology is frequently demonstrated in the disease. This study was performed to investigate the perfusion characteristics in MS lesions using dynamic susceptibility contrast MR imaging (DSC-MRI) to better understand the hemodynamic changes in ...