Editorial for “Improved Assessment of Longitudinal Spinal Cord Atrophy in Multiple Sclerosis Using a Registration‐Based Approach: Relevance for Clinical Studies”

AbstractBackground:The pathophysiological basis for differences in disability in patients with multiple sclerosis is unclear.Methods:We used magnetic resonance imaging to examine whether differences in disability in cohorts of multiple sclerosis patients with similar T2-weighted lesion volume and disease duration were associated with a more destructive disease process in the more disabled patients.Results:The benign and severely disabled groups had similar brain atrophy metrics and similar decreases of the neuronal marker, N-acetylaspartate, in the normal appearing white matter of the cerebrum on magnetic resonance spectroscopy examination in vivo. The severely disabled cohort had more spinal cord atrophy.Conclusion:The dissociation of spinal cord atrophy and cerebral atrophy between these two groups suggests that the difference between the more benign and more disabled groups cannot be explained by a more aggressive pathological process that is affecting the entire neuroaxis in a homogeneous fashion.

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Spinal cord atrophy predicts progressive disease in relapsing multiple sclerosis

Annals of Neurology ◽

10.1002/ana.26281 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Antje Bischof ◽

Nico Papinutto ◽

Anisha Keshavan ◽

Anand Rajesh ◽

Gina Kirkish ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Multiple Sclerosis ◽

Spinal Cord ◽

Progressive Disease ◽

Spinal Cord Atrophy ◽

Relapsing Multiple Sclerosis

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

Brain Sciences ◽

10.3390/brainsci10110857 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 10 (11) ◽

pp. 857

Author(s):

Yongsheng Chen ◽

Ewart Mark Haacke ◽

Evanthia Bernitsas

Keyword(s):

Multiple Sclerosis ◽

Spinal Cord ◽

Disease Progression ◽

White Matter Lesions ◽

Quantitative Mri ◽

Axonal Loss ◽

Spinal Cord Atrophy ◽

Diagnosis And Prognosis ◽

Mcdonald Criteria ◽

Spinal Cord Imaging

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.

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