Iron deposition in the gray matter in patients with relapse-remitting multiple sclerosis: A longitudinal study using three-dimensional (3D)-enhanced T2*-weighted angiography (ESWAN).
PURPOSE
To investigate the relationship between the iron content by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and clinic correlation in patients with relapse-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS) over a two-year period.


METHODS
Thirty RRMS patients and 30 healthy control subjects were examined twice, two years apart, by undergoing brain conventional MRI and three-dimensional (3D)-enhanced T2*-weighted angiography (ESWAN) sequences at 3.0T. Quantitative differences in iron content in deep gray matter (GM) nuclei and precentral gyrus GM between patients and control subjects with repeated-measures the mean phase values (MPVs) for ESWAN-ﬁltered phase images. Spearman's rank correlation coefficient analysis was used to evaluate correlations of the MPVs, both 2-year-difference and single-time measurements, to disease duration, expanded disability status scale (EDSS) and times of recurrence.


RESULTS
The RRMS patients had higher GM iron concentration than that of the healthy control subjects in both single-time measurements, but only the substantia nigra (SN), and the precentral gyrus GM (PGM) showed a significant statistical difference (p<0.05). Using the paired samples t test, we found that there were significant differences in two-year-difference measurements of the MPVs in the putamen (PUT), the globus pallidus (GP), the head of the caudate nucleus (HCN), the thalamus (THA), SN, the red nucleus (RN), the dentate nucleus (DN) and PGM, especially in SN (t=2.92, p=0.007) in RRMS patients. The MPVs of the PUT, GP, HCN, THA, SN, RN, DN and PGM for the subgroup with RRMS patients in times of recurrence less than twice were similar to the healthy controls. There was no significant difference in all regions of interests (ROIs). However, there were significant differences in all ROIs except THA and GP for the other subgroup with RRMS patients in times of recurrence more than and equal to twice. Spearman's rank correlation coefficient analysis showed there were significant negative correlations between disease duration and the MPVs in the HCN (r=-0.516, p=0.004), DN (r=-0.468, p=0.009) and PGM (r=-0.84, p=0). However, no correlations were found between the EDSS scores and the MPVs.


CONCLUSIONS
Iron content in the GM can be measurable using MRI and our results conﬁrmed that iron concentration was increasing in the GM of MS patients during two-year period compared to healthy controls. Furthermore, this study had also shown significant and substantial correlation of iron concentration with disease severity.
['Du|Silin|S|', 'Sah|Shambhu K|SK|', 'Zeng|Chun|C|', 'Wang|Jingjie|J|', 'Liu|Yi|Y|', 'Xiong|Hua|H|', 'Li|Yongmei|Y|']
D000293:Adolescent D000328:Adult D000368:Aged D000792:Angiography D001931:Brain Mapping D003287:Contrast Media D005260:Female D005500:Follow-Up Studies D066128:Gray Matter D006801:Humans D007089:Image Enhancement D021621:Imaging, Three-Dimensional D007501:Iron D008137:Longitudinal Studies D018810:Magnetic Resonance Angiography D008297:Male D008875:Middle Aged D020529:Multiple Sclerosis, Relapsing-Remitting D012720:Severity of Illness Index D055815:Young Adult
Iron deposition Gray matter Multiple sclerosis Longitudinal Susceptibility-weighted imaging