Abstract #2541

Reduced fibre density in the visual pathways of multiple sclerosis patients with optic neuritis

Sanuji Gajamange¹, David Raffelt², Thijs Dhollander², Elaine Lui³, Annie Shelton⁴, Owen White⁵, Trevor Kilpatrick^1,2, Alan Connelly ^2,6, Joanne Fielding ^4,7, and Scott Kolbe¹

¹Department of Anatomy and Neuroscience, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia, ²The Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health, Melbourne, Australia, ³Department of Radiology, Royal Melbourne Hospital, Melbourne, Australia, ⁴School of Psychological Sciences and Monash Institute of Cognitive and Clinical Neurosciences, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia, ⁵Department of Neurology, Royal Melbourne Hospital, Melbourne, Australia, ⁶The Florey Department of Neuroscience and Mental Health, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia, ⁷Department of Medicine, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia

Axonal degeneration is a key pathological driver of disability in multiple sclerosis (MS). Treatments aiming to reduce or reverse axonal degeneration in MS require sensitive and specific markers. Here we explore putative fibre-specific markers of axonal degeneration based on diffusion-weighted MRI metrics – fibre density and fibre bundle cross-section. MS patients with optic neuritis were compared to control subjects. We identified significant reductions to both fibre density and cross-section in the visual pathways of patients. These results indicate the pathological specificity of fibre density and cross-section measures in MS.

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