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Abstract #1409

Reduced fibre-specific measures in multiple sclerosis patients with cerebellar dysfunction

Sanuji Gajamange1, Frederique Boonstra2, Gustavo Noffs1,3, Thushara Perera1,4, Vilija Jokubaitis2, Adam Vogel1,4,5, Andrew Evans3,4, Helmut Butzkueven2, Anneke van der Walt2, and Scott Kolbe2
1The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia, 2Monash University, Melbourne, Australia, 3Royal Melbourne Hospital, Melbourne, Australia, 4The Bionics Institute, Melbourne, Australia, 5University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany

Cerebellar dysfunction is a common feature of multiple sclerosis (MS), leading to disabling symptoms such as tremor. In MS, brain atrophy is the most accepted correlate of neurodegeneration; however cerebellar atrophy does not seem to correlate with the degree of cerebellar dysfunction. Here we explore axonal degeneration, a key driver of disability, with a fibre-specific marker based on diffusion-weighted MRI – fibre density and fibre bundle cross-section. We found that loss of cerebellar fibre density and fibre cross-section was associated with increased clinical cerebellar dysfunction. Fibre-specific measures could provide a useful marker of cerebellar dysfunction in MS.

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