| Sign In to gain access to subscriptions and/or personal tools. |
The predictive value of gadolinium enhancement for long term disability in relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis-preliminary resultsNMR Research Unit, Institute of Neurology, Queen Square, London WC1N 3BG, UK
NMR Research Unit, Institute of Neurology, Queen Square, London WC1N 3BG, UK
NMR Research Unit, Institute of Neurology, Queen Square, London WC1N 3BG, UK
NMR Research Unit, Institute of Neurology, Queen Square, London WC1N 3BG, UK As short-term MRI studies are increasingly being used to monitor disease activity in multiple sclerosis (MS) it is vital to establish if short-term MRI activity is predictive of long term clinical outcome. We followed up after 5 years a group of 10 benign (relapsing-remitting MS with a disease duration 410 years and EDSS 43) and 10 early relapsing-remitting patients who previously had monthly serial MRI scans for 6 months. In the early relapsing-remitting group median EDSS at entry to the initial serial study was three and in the benign group 2.5. At 5-year follow up, five of these 20 patients had developed a definite deterioration in EDSS. The median number of new enhancing lesions detected originally in the group that had deteriorated was 11 (7-17) compared to 0 (0-5) new enhancing lesions, for those who had not deteriorated (P50.05). There was a trend towards a higher baseline T2 lesion load in the group with a definite change in EDSS but this was not significant. This study suggests that short-term measurement of the number of gadolinium enhancing lesions may predict long term outcome in relapsing-remitting MS.
Key Words: MS enhancement prediction disability
Multiple Sclerosis, Vol. 7, No. 1,
23-25 (2001) This article has been cited by other articles:
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

