Longitudinal clinical study of patients with iron rim lesions in multiple sclerosis.

Background: Iron rims (IRs) surrounding white matter lesions (WMLs) are suggested to predict a more severe disease course. Only small longitudinal cohorts of patients with and without iron rim lesions (IRLs) have been reported so far.

Objective: To assess whether the presence and number of IRLs in patients with clinically isolated syndrome (CIS) and multiple sclerosis (MS) are associated with long-term disability or progressive disease.

Imaging central veins in brain lesions with 3-T T2*-weighted magnetic resonance imaging differentiates multiple sclerosis from microangiopathic brain lesions.

Background: White matter lesions are frequently detected using brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) performed for various indications. Most are microangiopathic, but demyelination, including multiple sclerosis (MS), is an important cause; conventional MRI cannot always distinguish between these pathologies. The proportion of lesions with a central vein on 7-T T2*-weighted MRI prospectively distinguishes demyelination from microangiopathic lesions.

Imaging gray matter with concomitant null point imaging from the phase sensitive inversion recovery sequence.

Purpose: To present an improved three-dimensional (3D) interleaved phase sensitive inversion recovery (PSIR) sequence including a concomitantly acquired new contrast, null point imaging (NPI), to help detect and classify abnormalities in cortical gray matter.

Methods: The 3D gradient echo PSIR images were acquired at 0.6 mm isotropic resolution on 11 multiple sclerosis (MS) patients and 9 controls subjects using a 7 Tesla (T) MRI scanner, and 2 MS patients at 3T.