Grey-matter sodium concentration as an individual marker of multiple sclerosis severity.

Objective: Quantification of brain injury in patients with variable disability despite similar disease duration may be relevant to identify the mechanisms underlying disability in multiple sclerosis (MS). We aimed to compare grey-matter sodium abnormalities (GMSAs), a parameter reflecting neuronal and astrocyte dysfunction, in MS patients with benign multiple sclerosis (BMS) and non-benign multiple sclerosis (NBMS).

Methods: We identified never-treated BMS patients in our local MS database of 1352 patients.

New brain lesions with no impact on physical disability can impact cognition in early multiple sclerosis: A ten-year longitudinal study.

Objective: In early multiple sclerosis, although brain T2 lesions accrual are hallmark of the disease, only weak correlations were found between T2 lesions accrual and EDSS progression, the disability scale commonly used in multiple sclerosis studies. This may be related to the very poor sensitivity of EDSS to cognitive dysfunctions that may occur and progress from the first stage of the disease. In the present study, we aimed to demonstrate that cognitive deficits progress during the first ten years of MS and are significantly impacted by new T2 lesions.

Increased total sodium concentration in gray matter better explains cognition than atrophy in MS.

Objective: To investigate whether brain total sodium accumulation assessed by Na MRI is associated with cognitive deficit in relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS).

Methods: Eighty-nine participants were enrolled in the study (58 patients with RRMS with a disease duration ≤10 years and 31 matched healthy controls). Patients were classified as cognitively impaired if they failed at least 2 tasks on the Brief Repeatable Battery.

Improvement of spasticity following intermittent theta burst stimulation in multiple sclerosis is associated with modulation of resting-state functional connectivity of the primary motor cortices.

Background: Intermittent theta burst stimulation (iTBS) of the primary motor cortex improves transiently lower limbs spasticity in multiple sclerosis (MS). However, the cerebral mechanisms underlying this effect have never been investigated.

Objective: To assess whether modulation of spasticity induced by iTBS is underlined by functional reorganization of the primary motor cortices.

Metabolic voxel-based analysis of the complete human brain using fast 3D-MRSI: Proof of concept in multiple sclerosis.

Purpose: To detect local metabolic abnormalities over the complete human brain in multiple sclerosis (MS) patients, we used optimized fast volumic echo planar spectroscopic imaging (3D-EPSI).

Materials And Methods: Weighted mean combination of two 3D-EPSI covering the whole brain acquired at 3T in AC-PC and AC-PC+15° axial planes was performed to obtain high-quality metabolite maps for five metabolites: N-acetyl aspartate (NAA), glutamate+glutamine (Glx), choline (Cho), myo-inositol (m-Ins), and creatine+phosphocreatine (tCr). After spatial normalization, maps from 19 patients suffering from relapsing-remitting MS were compared to 19 matched controls using statistical mapping analyses to determine the topography of metabolic abnormalities.