Brain volume in early MS patients with and without IgG oligoclonal bands in CSF.

Background: Oligoclonal bands of IgG (OB) are proposed as an early prognostic factor of the disease. Growing attention is directed towards brain volume evaluation as a possible marker of the severity of MS. Previous studies found that MS patients lacking OB have less brain atrophy.

Aim: to evaluate a possible relationship between OB and cerebral volume in a cohort of early MS patients.

Methods: Inclusion criteria were: diagnosis of relapsing-remitting MS; CSF analysis and MRI acquired simultaneously and within 12 months from clinical onset. A total of 15 healthy controls underwent MRI.

Results: In 20 MS patients, CSF analysis did not show OB synthesis (OB negative group). A control group of 25 MS patients in whom OB was detected was also randomly recruited (OB positive group). T test showed a significant difference in NWV between the OB positive and OB negative groups (P value = 0.01), and between the OB positive group and the healthy controls (P value = 0.001). No differences were detected between OB negative group and healthy controls. Multivariable linear regression showed a relationship between NWV and OB synthesis (P value = 0.02) controlling for age, gender, and EDSS.

Conclusions: Our preliminary results suggest that OB positive patients show more atrophy of white matter since early phases of the disease, supporting the role of CSF analysis as a prognostic factor in MS.