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. 2022 Jul;12(7):e2679.
doi: 10.1002/brb3.2679. Epub 2022 Jun 28.

Grey matter atrophy in patients with benign multiple sclerosis

Marja Niiranen  1 , Juha Koikkalainen  2 , Jyrki Lötjönen  2 , Tuomas Selander  3 , Antti Cajanus  4 , Päivi Hartikainen  1 , Sakari Simula  5 , Ritva Vanninen  6   7 , Anne M Remes  8   9
Affiliations

Grey matter atrophy in patients with benign multiple sclerosis

Marja Niiranen et al. Brain Behav. 2022 Jul.

Abstract

Background: Brain atrophy appears during the progression of multiple sclerosis (MS) and is associated with the disability caused by the disease.

Methods: We investigated global and regional grey matter (GM) and white matter (WM) volumes, WM lesion load, and corpus callosum index (CCI), in benign relapsing-remitting MS (BRRMS, n = 35) with and without any treatment and compared those to aggressive relapsing-remitting MS (ARRMS, n = 46). Structures were analyzed by using an automated MRI quantification tool (cNeuro®).

Results: The total brain and cerebral WM volumes were larger in BRRMS than in ARRMS (p = .014, p = .017 respectively). In BRRMS, total brain volumes, regional GM volumes, and CCI were found similar whether or not disease-modifying treatment (DMT) was used. The total (p = .033), as well as subcortical (p = .046) and deep WM (p = .041) lesion load volumes were larger in BRRMS patients without DMT. Cortical GM volumes did not differ between BRRMS and ARRMS, but the volumes of total brain tissue (p = .014) and thalami (p = .003) were larger in patients with BRRMS compared to ARRMS. A positive correlation was found between CCI and whole-brain volume in both BRRMS (r = .73, p < .001) and ARRMS (r = .80, p < .01).

Conclusions: Thalamic volume is the most prominent measure to differentiate BRRMS and ARRMS. Validation of automated quantification of CCI provides an additional applicable MRI biomarker to detect brain atrophy in MS.

Keywords: MRI; benign multiple sclerosis; brain atrophy; corpus callosum index; thalamus.

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Conflict of interest statement

JK and JL are employees and shareholders in Combinostics. JL has given educational presentations for Merck and Sanofi, paid to his institution. Other authors have no conflicts of interest.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Patients of the study
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
Lesion segmentation in the cNeuro® quantification tool
FIGURE 3
FIGURE 3
Corpus callosum segmentation in the cNeuro® quantification tool
FIGURE 4
FIGURE 4
Correlation between corpus callosum index (CCI) and total brain volume
FIGURE 5
FIGURE 5
Correlation between total white matter (WM) lesion volume and total brain volume
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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