Increased immune system activity along the surface of the brain, or meningeal inflammation, may be important for understanding how multiple sclerosis (MS) progresses from the most common and earliest form of the disease known as relapsing remitting MS (RRMS) to a secondary progressive form. The meninges are a thin, protective tissue that covers the brain and spinal cord. One proposed way to more easily see evidence of inflammation at the meninges is by finding leptomeningeal enhancement (LME) on Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scans. This can appear early in the course of the disease and increases as the disease progresses, yet the most commonly available MRI technology—3 Tesla (3T)—gives a limited view of this proposed marker. Investigators from Brigham and Women’s Hospital have completed a new study using 7 Tesla (7T) MRI—a far more powerful imaging technology—to further examine LME in MS patients. With this new powerful tool, they have found that this proposed marker of brain inflammation in MS patients is more common than previously reported and is tied to lesions in the gray matter regions of the brain. The team’s findings are published in the Multiple Sclerosis Journal.
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