Abstract #1500

REGIONAL AND STRUCTURAL CHANGES OF THE SPINAL CORD TISSUE ENCOUNTERED IN AMYOTROPHIC LATERAL SCLEROSIS (ALS): A PRELIMINARY AND PROMISING CHARACTERIZATION USING DTI and ihMT.

Henitsoa Rasoanandrianina^1,2,3,4, Aude-Marie Grapperon⁵, Manuel Taso^1,2,3,4, Olivier M. Girard^1,2, Guillaume Duhamel^1,2, Elisabeth Soulier^1,2, Lauriane Pini^1,2, Audrey Rico⁶, Bertrand Audoin⁶, Maxime Guye^1,2, Jean-Philippe Ranjeva^1,2, and Virginie Callot^1,2,3

¹CRMBM UMR 7339, Aix-Marseille Université, CNRS, Marseille, France, ²CEMEREM, AP-HM, Pôle d'Imagerie Médicale, Hopital de La Timone, Marseille, France, ³iLab-Spine International Associate Laboratory, Marseille/Montréal, France, ⁴LBA UMR T 24, Aix-Marseille Université, IFSTTAR, Marseille, France, ⁵Service de Neurologie et Maladies neuro-musculaires, AP-HM,Hopital de La Timone, Marseille, France, ⁶Service de Neurologie et Unité NeuroVasculaire, AP-HM,Hopital de La Timone, Marseille, France

In this study, regional alteration of the spinal cord (SC) tissue encountered in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) were investigated using dedicated SC templates and 3T-multiparametric MRI techniques, in particular diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and the emerging myelin-specific inhomogeneous magnetization transfer (ihMT) technique. Results collected on 9 patients showed significant alteration of the DTI metrics compared to age-matched controls. They also demonstrated impairment of the MT metrics in the bilateral corticospinal tracts, as well as in the dorsal sensory tracts and the anterior gray matter horns. Combined with reduced ihMT metric variations, this suggests increase of the macromolecular pool, without pronounced demyelination. The structural changes we observed suggest a complex chrono-physiopathology that need to be further investigated.

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