Imaging of the Spinal Cord in Multiple Sclerosis: Past, Present, Future

Overview

Journal Brain Sci

Publisher MDPI

Date 2020 Nov 18

PMID 33202821

Citations 6

Authors

Yongsheng Chen

Ewart Mark Haacke

Evanthia Bernitsas

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Spinal cord imaging in multiple sclerosis (MS) plays a significant role in diagnosing and tracking disease progression. The spinal cord is one of four key areas of the central nervous system where documenting the dissemination in space in the McDonald criteria for diagnosing MS. Spinal cord lesion load and the severity of cord atrophy are believed to be more relevant to disability than white matter lesions in the brain in different phenotypes of MS. Axonal loss contributes to spinal cord atrophy in MS and its degree correlates with disease severity and prognosis. Therefore, measures of axonal loss are often reliable biomarkers for monitoring disease progression. With recent technical advances, more and more qualitative and quantitative MRI techniques have been investigated in an attempt to provide objective and reliable diagnostic and monitoring biomarkers in MS. In this article, we discuss the role of spinal cord imaging in the diagnosis and prognosis of MS and, additionally, we review various techniques that may improve our understanding of the disease.

Citing Articles

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Spinal cord evaluation in multiple sclerosis: clinical and radiological associations, present and future.

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Advanced spinal cord MRI in multiple sclerosis: Current techniques and future directions.

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Combes A, OGrady K, Rogers B, Schilling K, Lawless R, Visagie M Neuroimage Clin. 2022; 35:103127.

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Improved detection of multiple sclerosis lesions with T2-prepared double inversion recovery at 3T.

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