White and gray matter damage in primary progressive MS: The chicken or the egg?

ABSTRACT:

Objective

The temporal relationship between white matter (WM) and gray matter (GM) damage in vivo in early primary progressive multiple sclerosis (PPMS) was investigated testing 2 hypotheses: (1) WM tract abnormalities predict subsequent changes in the connected cortex ("primary WM damage model"); and (2) cortical abnormalities predict later changes in connected WM tracts ("primary GM damage model").

Methods

Forty-seven patients with early PPMS and 18 healthy controls had conventional and magnetization transfer imaging at baseline; a subgroup of 35 patients repeated the protocol after 2 years. Masks of the corticospinal tracts, genu of the corpus callosum and optic radiations, and of connected cortical regions, were used for extracting the mean magnetization transfer ratio (

SUBMITTER: Bodini B 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4731689 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature