Elisabetta Pagani1, Jochen G. Hirsch2,
Petra J.W. Pouwels3, Mark A. Horsfield4, Elisabetta
Perego1, Achim Gass2, Stefan D. Roosendaal3,
Frederik Barkhof3, Federica Agosta1, Roberto Vuotto1,
Marco Rovaris1, Domenico Caputo5, Antonio Giorgio6,
Jacqueline Palace6, Stefan Ropele7, Franz Fazekas7,
Massimo Filippi8
1Scientific Institute and University
Hospital San Raffaele, Italy; 2University Hospital Basel,
Switzerland; 3VU University Medical Centre, Netherlands; 4University
of Leicester; 5Scientific Institute Fondazione Don Gnocchi, Italy;
6University of Oxford, United Kingdom; 7Medical
University of Graz, Austria; 8Scientific Institute and University
Hospital San Raffaele, Milan, Italy
We
studied diffusion tensor (DT)-derived metrics acquired at baseline and after
6 months with the aims of assessing: a) longitudinal stability in healthy
subjects, and b) sensitivity to tissue damage in multiple sclerosis (MS)
patients. Thirty-one healthy subjects and 22 MS patients were studied in 7
MRI centers using a standardized DT-MRI sequence. Mean diffusivity and
fractional anisotropy longitudinal changes in healthy subjects ranged from 1%
to 3.7%. Neither of these two DT-MRI measures disclosed progressive tissue
changes in MS patients, possibly because of the relatively short follow-up
period.