Caterina Mainero1, Thomas Benner1,
Amy Radding1, Andre van der Kouwe1, R Philip Kinkel2,
Bruce R. Rosen1
1A. A. Martinos Center for Biomedical
Imaging, Massachusetts General Hospital, Charlestown, MA, United States; 2Neurology,
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, MA, United States
In
multiple sclerosis (MS) it is unclear whether cortical atrophy is secondary
to white matter (WM) damage, or underlies a primary neuronal process. Here,
we investigate the contribution of different cortical lesions types at 7T and
WM lesion load (WMLL) to cortical thinning in 14 MS patients. The higher the
number of all cortical lesions, and of type III/IV lesions (subpial lesions
extending partly or completely through the cortical width) the thinner the
cortex was. There was only a trend to significance for WMLL. Thinning in
frontal cortical areas showed the highest correlation with type III/IV
lesions. Subpial pathology is a major determinant of cortical atrophy in MS.
Keywords