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Abstract #4619

CEREBELLAR FUNCTIONAL CONNECTIVITY IN PATIENTS WITH PEDIATRIC MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS

Sara Cirillo 1 , Maria A. Rocca 1 , Paola Valsasina 1 , Pierangelo Veggiotti 2 , Lucia Moiola 3 , Angelo Ghezzi 4 , Giancarlo Comi 3 , Andrea Falini 5 , and Massimo Filippi 1

1 Neuroimaging Research Unit, Institute of Experimental Neurology, San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, Milan, MI, Italy, 2 Child Neuropsychiatry Unit, National Neurologic Institute "C. Mondino", Pavia, PV, Italy, 3 Department of Neurology, San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, Milan, MI, Italy, 4 UO Neurologia 2 - Centro Studi Sclerosi Multipla, Ospedale di Gallarate, Gallarate, VA, Italy, 5 Department of Neuroradiology, San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, Milan, MI, Italy

We explored abnormalities of resting state (RS) functional connectivity (FC) of the dentate nuclei (DN) of the cerebellum in relapsing-remitting pediatric multiple sclerosis (MS) patients and healthy controls and whether these alterations correlate with clinical and MRI measures of disease severity. In both groups, RS FC of the R DN was significantly correlated with the FC in other portions of the cerebellum, basal ganglia, several regions in the prefrontal cortices and parietal lobes. Compared to HC, patients experienced a distributed pattern of reduced RS FC in multiple regions, which was influenced by disease duration and accumulation of white matter lesions.

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