What is New about Magnetic Resonance Imaging of Multiple Sclerosis?

Background: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a demyelinating disease of the central nervous system. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has an important role in early diagnosis of MS. Patients and Method: Thirty patients with clinically diagnosed to have MS according to McDonald criteria were included and referred to department of radio-diagnosis, Faculty of Medicine, Minia University. Imaging was performed on a 1.5T Philips MR system using double inversion recovery (DIR), fluid attenuated inversion recovery (FLAIR), T2-weighted, T1-weighted and susceptibility-weighted imaging (SWI) sequences with the parameters including field of view (FOV), matrix, slice thickness and voxel size. They were done after the approval of ethical committee of our institution. Data analysis was performed using the SPSS version 20 and p-value as well as comparative study were gained. Results: The detection rate of white matter lesions in T2 was (88%); while for grey matter lesions was (10%). In FLAIR sequence, we found that; the detection rate of white matter lesions was (96%); while for grey matter lesions was (25%). As regarding DIR sequence, the detection rate of white matter lesions was (90%); while for grey matter lesions was (95%).Comparative study between serial MRI sequences (T2,FLAIR and DIR) revealed; significant increase in detected number of grey matter lesions; in DIR-MRI sequence (p < 0.0001). In SWI, a central vein sign was detected in 96 lesions (66 in periventricular lesions and 30 in subcortical lesions). Conclusion: From this study we concluded that new imaging modalities of MRI as regarding DIR and SWI are a valuable MRI sequences in imaging of multiple sclerosis; thus, we recommend adding DIR and SWI sequences in routine MR protocols for MS patients.