MS: a new dramatic treatment

[Justin]

Can you imagine the surge of hope for these patients, for their families? And it came from such a different direction. Here the researchers have been, looking at all sorts of autoimmune issues, to have it (possibly) be as simple as narrowing of the veins

I'd be very interested to hear of the follow-up with your friends and relatives, to see if the success rate holds as the patient numbers go up.

Katie, this procedure offers much hope to MS patients. I also wanted to point out that MS is a mix of genetic factors and environmental triggers that results in demyelination of nerves in the brain and spinal cord. It looks as if this procedure could help with the severity and progression of MS and the lesions seen.

J Magn Reson Imaging. 2009 Mar;29(3):537-44.

Characterizing iron deposition in multiple sclerosis lesions using susceptibility weighted imaging.

Haacke EM, Makki M, Ge Y, Maheshwari M, Sehgal V, Hu J, Selvan M, Wu Z, Latif Z, Xuan Y, Khan O, Garbern J, Grossman RI. Department of Radiology, Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan 48201, USA. Copyright (c) 2009 Wiley-Liss, Inc. PMID: 19243035 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

PURPOSE: To investigate whether the variable forms of putative iron deposition seen with susceptibility weighted imaging (SWI) will lead to a set of multiple sclerosis (MS) lesion characteristics different than that seen in conventional MR imaging.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: Twenty-seven clinically definite MS patients underwent brain scans using magnetic resonance imaging including: pre- and postcontrast T1-weighted imaging, T2-weighted imaging, FLAIR, and SWI at 1.5 T, 3 T, and 4 T. MS lesions were identified separately in each imaging sequence. Lesions identified in SWI were reevaluated for their iron content using the SWI filtered phase images.

RESULTS: There were a variety of new lesion characteristics identified by SWI, and these were classified into six types. A total of 75 lesions were seen only with conventional imaging, 143 only with SWI, and 204 by both. From the iron quantification measurements, a moderate linear correlation between signal intensity and iron content (phase) was established.

CONCLUSION: The amount of iron deposition in the brain may serve as a surrogate biomarker for different MS lesion characteristics. SWI showed many lesions missed by conventional methods and six different lesion characteristics. SWI was particularly effective at recognizing the presence of iron in MS lesions and in the basal ganglia and pulvinar thalamus.

[Katie]

Justin, is the presence of those lesions in the brain a necessary indication of MS? If the lesions are not there, do they look for something else besides MS for the reasons behind the symptoms?

And how often does the presence of large Iron deposits indicate a positive diagnosis? I'm sorry, I'm the first to admit that I don't know many details about this disease, and am also very fuzzy right now.

I wondered about this and so really appreciate your statement here. " I also wanted to point out that MS is a mix of genetic factors and environmental triggers that results in demyelination of nerves in the brain and spinal cord."