Abstract #0503

Brain Sodium Accumulation & Spreading Correlate with Disability in Multiple Sclerosis

Wafaa Zaaraoui¹, Simon Konstandin², Bertrand Audoin¹, Armin M. Nagel³, Audrey Rico¹, Irina Malikova¹, Elisabeth Soulier¹, Patrick Viout¹, Sylviane Confort-Gouny¹, Patrick J. Cozzone¹, Jean Pelletier¹, Lothar R. Schad², Jean-Philippe Ranjeva¹

¹CRMBM UMR CNRS 6612 - Aix-Marseille Universit, Marseille, France; ²Computer Assisted Clinical Medicine, Heidelberg University, Mannheim, Germany; ³German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), Department of Medical Physics in Radiology, Heidelberg, Germany

The key role of sodium accumulation leading to neuronal injury in multiple sclerosis has recently been highlighted. Using in vivo sodium MRI at 3T, we have characterized for the first time the spatial spreading of brain sodium accumulation in two groups of relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS) patients (13 early RRMS and 13 advanced RRMS) compared to 15 healthy controls. Brain sodium accumulation was present from the early stage of RRMS and dramatically spread during the course of the disease in the whole brain especially in the normal appearing tissues concomitantly to progression of disability and independently from atrophy.