Revisiting Brain Atrophy and Its Relationship to Disability in Multiple Sclerosis

Brain atrophy is a well-accepted imaging biomarker of multiple sclerosis (MS) that partially correlates with both physical disability and cognitive impairment.Based on MRI scans of 60 MS cases and 37 healthy volunteers, we measured the volumes of white matter (WM) lesions, cortical gray matter (GM), cerebral WM, caudate nucleus, putamen, thalamus, ventricles, and brainstem using a validated and completely automated segmentation method. We correlated these volumes with the Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS), MS Severity Scale (MSSS), MS Functional Composite (MSFC), and quantitative measures of ankle strength and toe sensation. Normalized volumes of both cortical and subcortical GM structures were abnormally low in the MS group, whereas no abnormality was found in the volume of the cerebral WM. High physical disability was associated with low cerebral WM, thalamus, and brainstem volumes (partial correlation coefficients ~0.3-0.4) but not with low cortical GM volume. Thalamus volumes were inversely correlated with lesion load (r = -0.36, p<0.005).The GM is atrophic in MS. Although lower WM volume is associated with greater disability, as might be expected, WM volume was on average in the normal range. This paradoxical result might be explained by the presence of coexisting pathological processes, such as tissue damage and repair, that cause both atrophy and hypertrophy and that underlie the observed disability

Normalized brain structure volumes.

<p>Results with <i>p</i><0.01 are shown in bold face. <i>Abbreviations</i>. <i>HV</i>, healthy volunteers. <i>MS</i>, multiple sclerosis. <i>SD</i>, standard deviation.</p

Partial correlations of impairment measures with normalized structure volumes.

<p>Results are adjusted for linear effects of age and sex. The <i>p</i>-values are shown in parentheses, and results with <i>p</i><0.01 are shown in boldface. <i>Abbreviations</i>. <i>EDSS</i>, Expanded Disability Status Scale. <i>MSSS</i>, MS Severity Score. <i>MSFC</i>, Multiple Sclerosis Functional Composite <i>z</i>-score. <i>PASAT-3</i>, Paced Auditory Serial Addition Test, 3-second version.</p

Partial correlations of impairment measures with normalized structure volumes computed by FSL FAST segmentation tool.

<p>Results are adjusted for linear effects of age and sex. The <i>p</i>-values are shown in parentheses, and results with <i>p</i><0.01 are shown in boldface. <i>Abbreviations</i>. <i>EDSS</i>, Expanded Disability Status Scale. <i>MSSS</i>, MS Severity Score. <i>MSFC</i>, Multiple Sclerosis Functional Composite. <i>PASAT-3</i>, Paced Auditory Serial Addition Test, 3-second version.</p

Lesion-TOADS segmentation results.

<p>Representative slices from the T1-weighted (A) and FLAIR (B) scans of one of the MS cases. Lesions are depicted in red (C). 3D rendering of ventricles (blue), putamen (green), caudate (orange), thalamus (pink), brainstem (yellow), and lesions (red), generated by Lesion-TOADS (D).</p

Figure 2

<p>Distributions of normalized cortical gray matter (A) and cerebral white matter (B) volumes in healthy volunteers vs. MS cases. White matter volume is not significantly atrophic in the MS group, whereas cortical GM volume is substantially lower in MS.</p

Partial correlations of normalized brain structure with one another in MS cases.

<p>Results are adjusted for linear effects of age and sex. The <i>p</i>-values are shown in parentheses, and results with <i>p</i><0.01 are shown in boldface.</p