ABSTRACT
The use of imaging technologies in the past decade has revolutionized clinical trials of potential therapies for multiple sclerosis (MS). In vivo imaging of brain structure using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is routinely used to evaluate the effectiveness of new MS therapies and has led to important insights into the disease process. The recognition that inflammatory activity occurs at high rates even in clinically stable patients[1] and the discovery that widespread abnormalities are present in seemingly normal white matter regions[2-4] are just two of the significant findings gleaned through the use of structural MRI. The application of newer MRI techniques, such as magnetization transfer imaging (MTI), diffusion weighted imaging, and spectroscopy, described in detail elsewhere, will help to characterize the neuropathologic heterogeneity of MS plaque as seen on a standard T2-weighted image.
