• Rachel E Maia de Andrade, Emerson L Gasparetto, Luiz Celso Hygino Cruz, Fabiana Brito Ferreira, Roberto Cortês Domingues, Edson Marchiori, and Romeu Cortês Domingues.
• Department of Radiology, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil.
• Arq Neuropsiquiatr. 2007 Sep 1; 65 (3A): 561-4.

ObjectiveTo study the white matter of patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) with diffusion tensor magnetic resonance (MR) imaging (DTI).MethodForty patients with clinical-laboratorial diagnosis of relapsing-remitting MS and 40 age- and sex-matched controls, who underwent conventional and functional (DTI) MR imaging, were included in the study. The DTI sequences resulted in maps of fractional anisotropy (FA) and regions of interest were placed on the plaques, peri-plaque regions, normal-appearing white matter (NAWM) around the plaques, contralateral normal white matter (CNWM) and normal white matter of the controls (WMC). The FA values were compared and the statistical treatment was performed with the Mann-Whitney U test.ResultsThe mean FA in plaques was 0.268, in peri-plaque regions 0.365, in NAWM 0.509, in CNWM 0.552 and in WMC 0.573. Statistical significant differences in FA values were observed in plaques, peri-plaque regions and in NAWM around the plaques when compared to the white matter in the control group. There was no significant difference between the FA values of the CNWM of patients with MS and normal white matter of controls.ConclusionPatients with MS show difference in the FA values of the plaques, peri-plaques and NAWM around the plaques when compared to the normal white matter of controls. As a result, DTI may be considered more efficient than conventional MR imaging for the study of patients with MS.

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