Enrico De Vita1, 2, Nils Mulhert3, Matteo Atzori4, 5, David L. Thomas2, Claudia Wheeler-Kingshott5, Jeroen JG Geurts6, Alan J. Thompson5, Olga Ciccarelli
1Lysholm Department of Neuroradiology, National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, London, United Kingdom; 2Academic Neuroradiological Unit, Department of Brain Repair and Rehabilitation, UCL Institute of Neurology, London, United Kingdom; 3NMR Research Unit, Department of Neuroinflammation, UCL Institute of Neurology, London, United Kingdom; 4Department of Neurology, University of Padova, Padova, Italy; 5NMR Research Unit, Department of Brain Repair and Rehabilitation, UCL Institute of Neurology, London, United Kingdom; 6MS Research Centre, Department of Radiology, VU University Medical Centre, Amsterdam, Netherlands
We performed single-voxel 3T 1H-MRS to assess glutamate concentrations ([Glu]) in grey matter (hippocampus, thalamus, cortex) of relapsing-remitting MS patients to establish whether it differs between patients and controls and relates to cognitive dysfunction. Intra-voxel tissue segmentation was employed to account for voxel water content. MS patients showed: lower [Glu] in the right hippocampus, parietal and cingulated cortices; lower NAA in the thalamus and cortical regions; lower choline-containing compounds and creatine-plus-phosphocreatine in the cortical regions, than controls. In patients, right hippocampal [Glu] significantly predicted visual memory scores, suggesting it may become a surrogate marker for memory impairment in clinical trials.