Ivan Kirov1,2, Shu Liu1,2, Assaf Tal3, William E. Wu1,2, Matthew S. Davitz1,2, James S. Babb1,2, Henry Rusinek1,2, Joseph Herbert4, and Oded Gonen1,2
1Center for Advanced Imaging Innovation and Research (CAI2R), New York University School of Medicine, New York, NY, United States, 2Bernard and Irene Schwartz Center for Biomedical Imaging, New York University School of Medicine, New York, NY, United States, 3Chemical Physics, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel, 4Neurology, New York University Langone Medical Center, New York, NY, United States
We describe the evolution of chronic multiple sclerosis
lesions from a quantitative MR imaging and spectroscopy perspective. Metabolite
concentrations were obtained along with measures of lesion T1-hypointensity and
size. Moderately hypointense lesions were more metabolically active than
severely hypointense lesions, driving an increase in the glial marker
myo-inositol. Correlational analyses revealed that lesion size is a better
predictor of axonal health than T1-hypointensity, with lesions larger than 1.5
cm3 exhibiting terminal axonal injury. A positive correlation between changes
in choline and in lesion size in moderately hypointense lesions implied that changes
in lesion size are mediated by chronic inflammation.
