Abstract #0019

7T Quantitative Magnetization Transfer (qMT) of Cortical Gray Matter in Multiple Sclerosis Correlates with Cognitive Disability

Lydia McKeithan^1,2, Bailey D. Lyttle^2,3, Bailey A. Box^2,3, Kristin P. O'Grady^2,3, Richard D. Dortch^1,2,3, Benjamin N. Conrad², and Seth A. Smith^1,2,3,4

¹Department of Biomedical Engineering, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, United States, ²Vanderbilt University Institute of Imaging Science, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, ³Department of Radiology and Radiological Sciences, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, ⁴Department of Opthamology, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN

Cognitive impairment (CI) is a major manifestation of multiple sclerosis (MS) and is responsible for extensively hindering patient quality of life.¹ Cortical gray matter damage is critical to CI, but is poorly characterized by conventional MRI. We employed advanced methods by evaluating SIR-qMT-derived indices for differences between MS patients and healthy volunteers at 7T and derived associations with neuropsychological measures of cognitive impairment. We found significant reduction in k_mf in cGM of MS patients, unique association with EDSS score, and strong correlation with cognitive performance indicating that k_mfmay be a significant biomarker of GM damage in MS.

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