The role of non-conventional magnetic resonance techniques in monitoring evolution of multiple sclerosis

Conventional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) techniques have proved to be extremely useful to monitor multiple sclerosis activity and evolution. The recent development and clinical application of non-conventional MR techniques has the potential to further increase the importance of MR in the evaluation of multiple sclerosis by reducing the time needed for acquisition of the data, by improving sensitivity, and by increasing the pathological specificity of the abnormalities detected. In the present review, the main results obtained using these newer techniques in the study of the natural history of the disease and the future possible applications in clinical trials are presented.