Abstract #0305

Establishing a Relationship Between Pain and Spinal Cord Demyelination using Magnetization Transfer Imaging and Thermal Sensory Testing

Nadia Barakat¹, Steven Staffa¹, Leslie Benson², Mark P Gorman², David Zurakowski¹, and David Borsook¹

¹Department of Anesthesiology, Critical Care and Pain Medicine, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, MA, United States, ²Department of Neurology, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, MA, United States

Myelitis is a demyelinating disorder of the spinal cord . It can occur as an isolated syndrome or in the context of an autoimmune condition such as MS. Pain is a significant problem in myelitis and has a major impact on treatment response and rehabilitation efforts. Magnetization Transfer Imaging has the ability to provide a marker for myelin content. Defining a relationship between pain and demyelination could lead to improved disease outcome. Our results showed significant differences in spinal cord MTR (C1 to T12) and pain (heat/cold stimuli) between patients and controls, and strong correlation between MTR and heat detection thresholds.

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