Brain iron serves as marker for MS
Posted: Thu Nov 03, 2011 12:59 am
Iron accumulation in the basal ganglia was found in patients with advanced multiple sclerosis (MS), but not in patients with a clinically isolated syndrome (CIS) that is suggestive of MS, Austrian researchers reported.
In this quantitative study, 113 MS and CIS patients, as well as 35 healthy controls, underwent 3T MRI imaging, which showed increased levels of brain iron in MS patients compared with CIS patients (P<0.001) and healthy controls (P<0.005), wrote Franz Fazekas, MD, of the Medical University of Graz, and colleagues in Neurology.
MRI-based iron mapping has been proposed as a marker of neurodegeneration in various neurologic disorders, including MS, explained Alex Rovira, MD, from the Hospital Vall d'Hebron in Barcelona, in an accompanying editorial. "Iron is an essential trace element with a vital role in normal brain metabolism, oxygen transport, myelin production, and neurotransmitter synthesis, and in reactions critical to oxidative stress," he wrote.... Read More - http://www.msrc.co.uk/index.cfm/fuseact ... ageid/3253