Ernst Wilhelm Radue
University Hospital Basel, Switzerland
Posters-Accepted Abstracts: J Nurs Care
Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is characterized by inflammatory and neurodegenerative changes in the brain and spinal cord. Measurement of disease activity can be considered at two levels: Clinical parameters which include relapse rate, disability measures and cognitive deficits, as well as physiological parameters which include lesion load and cerebral atrophy. Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) is used to monitor disease activity as it highlights the evolving pathology of the disease. Based on their signal intensities in different MRI sequences, MS lesions show special characteristics: Gd-enhancing lesions in T1- weighted sequences relate to acute disturbances of the blood-brain-barrier and may represent demyelination and axonal deficit; Hyper-intense lesions in T2-weighted sequences are related to unspecific inflammatory changes which can be graded by volume measurements over time and Hypo-intense areas (black holes) in T1-weighted sequences may represent water deposits, myelin loss and axonal loss in the acute phase; 30% become chronic if they persist longer than 6 months. MRI is used in mono or multicenter studies based on evaluations according to common quality standards. The talk will give an overview on the radiological appearance of MS related features. Lesions will be demonstrated and their correlation with clinical parameters will be explained. Guidelines for the interpretation of the MRI data will be discussed. Advanced MRI methods like double inversion recovery (DIR) and Magnetization Transfer (MT) will be demonstrated as they give more detailed information about the status of water content and myelination. Further new attempts to analyse disease activity will be introduced.
Email: ernst-wilhelm.radue@usb.ch
Journal of Nursing & Care received 4230 citations as per Google Scholar report
Spanish 
Chinese 
Russian 
German 
French 
Japanese 
Portuguese 
Hindi 