European researchers have updated the criteria for using MRI to diagnose multiple sclerosis (MS), highlighting the new framework at the European Committee for Treatment and Research in Multiple Sclerosis (ECTRIMS) meeting underway in London.
MRI scans have been used to help diagnose MS for more than 15 years, but advances in technology make a revision in protocol necessary, according to presenter Dr. Paolo Preziosa of Vita-Salute San Raffaele University in Milan.
Preziosa and colleagues conducted a study with 72 patients from five European centers who had clinically isolated syndrome (CIS), a precursor to MS. The patients underwent a double inversion recovery MRI, which increases the detection of gray matter lesions compared with standard MRI.
The group found that after two years, 90% of study participants had developed MS.
As a result, Preziosa and colleagues drafted new criteria for MS diagnosis in patients with CIS. At least two of the following signs should be visible on MR scan:
- At least one lesion in the spinal cord
- Three or more lesions in the periventricular white matter in the brain
- At least one lesion in the infratentorial region, which includes the cerebellum
- At least one lesion in the cortical or juxtacortical region of the brain
- At least one lesion in an optic nerve
Following these new criteria should make it possible to diagnose MS in someone with very early clinical symptoms more accurately, the group concluded.
