MRI scans may be able to predict the rate of brain atrophy over the next two years in patients newly diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS), Dutch researchers say.
A team from the VU University Medical Center in Amsterdam conducted brain MRIs on 89 MS patients -- first at the time of diagnosis and again two years later. The researchers recorded information about overall brain volume and the numbers and volume of two types of lesions detected by MRI: "black holes" (dark-appearing lesions that indicate the loss of myelin -- the protective coating on neurons); and T2 (newer, brighter appearing lesions). Changes in brain volume over the two years were calculated, and the study volunteers also underwent assessment for changes in neurologic disability. "The mean (average) annualized rate of cerebral atrophy was - 0.9 percentage of brain volume changed per year," the researchers wrote. Two factors -- brain volume at baseline and the brain's "T2 lesion load" -- explained 31.2 percent of the variance in percentage of brain volume change per year, the researchers concluded. This means that "patients who have acquired more brain tissue loss and more T2 lesions are prone to have a higher rate of subsequent brain atrophy," the study authors concluded. "In this relationship, the extent of brain tissue loss seemed more important than lesional activity. Because a higher rate of cerebral atrophy is predictive of worse clinical functioning at a later stage in the MS disease course, our findings suggest that these two baseline variables could have prognostic value for clinical functioning in early MS," the team said. The study is published in the February issue of the journal Archives of Neurology. | 
