"Black Holes" On MRI: Markers Of Disease Progression In Multiple Sclerosis Patients

WESTPORT, Dec 23, 1996 (Reuters) - In patients with multiple sclerosis, "black holes" on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans correlate with disease progression, according to Dutch researchers.

Dr. L. Truyen of the Free University Hospital in Amsterdam writes in Neurology this month that an earlier study "...suggested a relationship between hypointense lesions on T1 MRI and disability." Dr. Truyen and colleagues now report on their attempt to correlate changes in hypointense lesion load on T1-weighted spin-echo magnetic resonance images ("black holes") with changes in disability in 46 patients with multiple sclerosis.

"There was a significant correlation between baseline disability and hypointense lesion load," Dr. Truyen concluded.

In the current study, 29 patients were considered to have "relapse-remitting" multiple sclerosis, "...with stable disability between relapses," and 17 patients had "secondary progressive" multiple sclerosis, with progressive increases in disability over the six months before entry into the study. "In secondary progressive patients, the rate of accumulation of these "black holes" was significantly related to progression rate," Dr. Truyen said.

The researchers speculate that "...the hypointense lesions seen on standard MRI may...reflect areas of structural loss..." and that the appearance of hypointense lesions on T1-weighted scans "...could be the MR equivalent of a failure of remission."

Neurology 1996;47:1469-1476.

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