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Abstract #4052

Longitudinal assessment of cervical cord atrophy across MS clinical phenotypes: a multicenter study

Paola Valsasina1, Maria Assunta Rocca1, Mohammad Ahmad Abdullah Ali Aboulwafa1, Paolo Preziosa1, Frederik Barkhof2, Hugo Vrenken2, Claudio Gobbi3, Chiara Zecca3, Alex Rovira4, Xavier Montalban5, Hugh Kearney6, Olga Ciccarelli6, Lucy Matthews7, Jacqueline Palace7, Antonio Gallo8, Alvino Bisecco8, Achim Gass9, Philipp Eisele9, Carsten Lukas10, Barbara Bellenberg10, Giancarlo Comi11, and Massimo Filippi1

1Neuroimaging Research Unit, San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, Milan, Italy, 2MS Centre Amsterdam, VU Medical Centre, Amsterdam, Netherlands, 3Department of Neurology, Neurocenter of Southern Switzerland, Lugano, Switzerland, 4Department of Radiology, Hospital Universitari Vall d'Hebron, Barcelona, Spain, 5Department of Neurology, Hospital Universitari Vall d'Hebron, Barcelona, Spain, 6Queen Square MS Centre, UCL Institute of Neurology, London, United Kingdom, 7Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom, 8MRI Center "SUN-FISM", Second University of Naples, Naples, Italy, 9Universitaetsmedizin Mannheim, University of Heidelberg, Mannheim, Germany, 10St Josef Hospital, Ruhr University Bochum, Bochum, Germany, 11Department of Neurology, San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, Milan, Italy

Aims of this large, multicenter study were to characterize baseline cervical cord atrophy in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) compared with healthy controls, and to evaluate the modification of cervical cord cross-sectional area (CSA) over one-year of follow-up in such patients. Results indicated that baseline cord atrophy was present in MS patients vs controls, with a differential effect across phenotypes and a greater severity of atrophy in the progressive forms of the disease. Significant CSA decrease over time was found in relapsing remitting, primary progressive MS and in clinically worsened patients.

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