Recovery after spinal cord relapse in multiple sclerosis is predicted by radial diffusivity

Area of Science:

• Neuroimaging
• Multiple Sclerosis Research
• Spinal Cord Imaging

Background:

• Multiple sclerosis (MS) relapses can cause significant disability.
• Understanding predictors of recovery is crucial for MS patient management.
• Spinal cord involvement in MS impacts clinical outcomes.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate if diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) measures predict recovery after MS spinal cord relapse.
• To assess changes in radial diffusivity (RD) and axial diffusivity (AD) over time.
• To determine the role of RD and AD in the corticospinal tract (CST) of the cervical cord.

Main Methods:

• 14 MS patients with cervical cord relapses were assessed clinically over 6 months.
• Spinal cord DTI was performed at multiple time points.
• RD and AD were calculated in the CST and other spinal cord regions.
• Regression analyses identified predictors of clinical outcome.

Main Results:

• Lower baseline radial diffusivity in the corticospinal tract predicted better clinical recovery.
• Clinically improving patients showed a greater decrease in corticospinal tract radial diffusivity compared to controls.
• Radial diffusivity changes correlated with clinical improvement over time.

Conclusions:

• Radial diffusivity is a potential biomarker for predicting clinical recovery in MS.
• Dynamic changes in RD reflect spinal cord pathological processes like inflammation and remyelination.
• RD may be valuable in clinical trials for spinal cord injury and other neurological diseases.