Similar Global N-Acetylaspartate in Benign and Non-Benign Multiple Sclerosis Patients of Similar Long Disease Duration

Daniel Rigotti¹, Lutz Achtnichts², Oded Gonen¹, James Babb¹, Yvonne Naegelin², Kerstin Bendtfeld², Jochen Hirsch², Michael Amann², Robert I. Grossman¹, Ludw

We test the hypothesis that neural preservation, reflected by whole-brain N-acetylaspartate (WBNAA) in benign multiple sclerosis (MS) is similar to healthy contemporaries and higher than more clinically disabled patients of similar disease duration. WBNAA was obtained from 24 benign and 16 non-benign MS patients and 17 age-matched controls. While control's had significantly higher WBNAA (12.22.3mM), than either group (benign: 10.52.4, non-benign:10.12.3mM, (p0.04)), patients were similar as they were in other metrics (atrophy and T2 hyperintense lesion volume but not T1 hypointense load). Surprisingly, neural integrity/preservation is not a characteristic of benign MS, possibly reflecting fortunate sparing of eloquent brain regions.