Fahime Sheikhzadeh1,2, Roger Tam2,3
1Biomedical Engineering
Program, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada; 2MS/MRI
Research Group, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada; 3Department
of Radiology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada
Most studies on multiple sclerosis (MS) lesions focus on correlation between lesion volume and clinical measures, such as the Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS). This preliminary study investigates the contribution of the spatial distribution of lesions to disability. The white matter lesions on the T2w and PDw MRIs of 24 MS patients were delineated and the 3D spatial distribution of the lesion voxels in each patient was computed using the variance of Euclidean distances from a fixed reference point. Correlation and linear regression analysis show that lesion distribution contributes independently to EDSS and is potentially more sensitive than lesion volume.