Noninvasively Detection of the Pathological Changes of MS Lesions Responding to Treatment Using Diffusion Basis Spectrum Imaging

Yong Wang¹, Peng Sun¹, Anne H. Cross², ³, Sheng-Kwei Song¹, ³

Gaining a full understanding of the pathogenesis of multiple sclerosis (MS) requires longitudinal studies, which presents a special challenge because the acquisition of tissue samples has the potential of causing harm to patients. Recently developed diffusion basis spectrum imaging (DBSI) can simultaneously quantify axonal injury, demyelination, and inflammation in the CNS disease, therefore holds promise of conducting longitudinal studies which noninvasively reveal the changing histopathology of MS lesions. In this study, we first examined the reproducibility of repeated clinical DBSI scans on selected image voxels from healthy volunteers. Following the reproducibility study, an MS patient was scanned 4 times following the initial diagnosis and during treatment. Preliminary data indicated that DBSI could follow the pathological substrate changes occurring with time and treatment, and potentially be used to eveluate the effectiveness of different treatment protocols.