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Abstract #0217

Corticosteroid Treatment Fails to Prevent Long-term Axonal Loss Assessed by Diffusion Basis Spectrum Imaging

Tsen-Hsuan (Abby) Lin1, Jie Zhan2, Chunyu Song3, Michael Wallendorf4, Peng Sun1, Anne H Cross5,6, and Sheng-Kwei Song1,3,6

1Radiology, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO, United States, 2Radiology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Nanchang University, Jiangxi, People's Republic of China, 3Biomedical Engineering, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, United States, 4Biostatistics, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, United States, 5Neurology, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO, United States, 6The Hope Center for Neurological Disorders, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO, United States

Glucocorticoids are commonly used to treat acute optic neuritis. Herein, we employed longitudinal diffusion basis spectrum imaging (DBSI) to examine and compare optic nerve integrity in EAE with PBS or Dexamethasone treatment. Our results indicate that anti-inflammatory treatment with corticosteroids alone is not sufficient to prevent eventual axonal loss in mice, and may have relevance for treatment of MS exacerbations with corticosteroids. DBSI could serve as an outcome measure to monitor longitudinal disease progression and to help stratify treatments.

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