Measurement of Corpus Callosum and Comparison of MRI Techniques for Monitoring of Multiple Sclerosis

Aim: To compare contemporary MRI measures for prediction of future clinical disability in multiple sclerosis patients (MS) by analysis of our MRI data (brain atrophy, 12 lesion volume, T1 lesion volume and corpus callosum atrophy). Methods: Long-term (seven years) longitudinal MRI data of 178 patients were analyzed in the same protocol: FLAIR and T1 WI 3D. Using an originally developed software named ScanViewCZ (developed at our MR unit), lesion load was measured automatically from FLAIR sequence (T2 lesion volume), the brain atrophy, brain parenchymal fraction and T1 lesion volume were assed from T1W 3D sequence. Measurement of corpus callosum atrophy: area of the central slice in sagittal reconstruction of T1 W 3D was determined automatically by the originally developed software. Clinical disability was assessed with Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS). Patients were divided into two groups: clinically stable and those with sustained progression over seven years. Results: Statistically significant correlation of future sustained disability progression (as characterized by EDSS score) was found in association with brain atrophy and corpus callosum atrophy. Correlation with lesion load was low. Using the corpus callosum MRI, clinically stable patients were statistically significantly (p = 0.0024) different from patients with sustained progression as soon as within the first year. Conclusions: This retrospective study shows that monitoring of the corpus callosum atrophy is the most useful for stratification of patients into "stable" and "sustained progression" groups.