This Is MS Multiple Sclerosis Knowledge & Support Community

Just ran across it while looking at something else and thought it merited a mention since any study that zeroes in on these two specifics is beneficial to our CCSVI frame of reference.

Clinical Psychiatry News
Volume 38, Issue 1, Pages 1-53 (January 2010)

Imaging Suggests Gray Matter Atrophy in MS Oh really!!??
Loss of gray matter is a complement of axonal loss
and the genesis of progression in MS. Identifying
these areas of loss has clinical relevance for
understanding the associated cognitive changes

BY MICHELE G. SULLIVAN
BANGKOK, THAILAND — Far from
affecting only white matter, multiple
sclerosis seems to strike at gray matter as
well, causing atrophy of brain structures
that correlates with disease duration and
declining cognitive function.

“This loss of gray matter is a complement
of the axonal loss and the genesis
of symptomatic progression in MS,” Mr.
Achiron said. “Identification of these
specific areas of loss has clinical relevance
for understanding the associated
cognitive changes.”

And of course, from Cheerleader's wonderful Bologna notes:

Dr. Bianca Weinstock-Guttman, Jacobs Neurological Institute
The MS patients had a decrease in brian volume, and less gray matter volume than the controls. The third ventricle was dilated compared to controls.

The velocity of the CSF- the average net CSF flow in MS patients was strongly associated with a retrograde flow- velocity is lower in both directions in MS

The more abnormal the criteria, the more the gray matter loss, the more brain atrophy, the worse the disease progression- the more venous stenosis was found.

Hey Mark-
That's a new paper. Thanks. There are five new papers out on gray matter loss and MS from November 2009- present. More and more researchers are finding the link to gray matter loss and disability and progression. We have often noted on here that it's "NOT about the white matter lesions" since many of our members have few or none, and are progressive. This is why it is ESSENTIAL that patients are tested for venous insufficiency and treated before the brain atrophies..

Dr. Rudick and colleagues at the Cleveland Clinic, who have been following 85 MS patients and healthy controls since 2000, reported in the July 15 Journal of Neurological Science that the gray matter volume in patients decreases over time. Early in the disease, Dr. Rudick said, gray matter volume loss proceeds three times faster in patients than in controls.As the disease progresses — and the symptoms worsen — “the rate of atrophy in patients increases to 14 times that seen in unaffected people,” Dr. Rudick added. “What's more, gray matter atrophy correlates with physical disability and cognitive disability more strongly than white matter atrophy.”As the evidence for this two-hit hypothesis strengthens, scores of laboratories are trying to find imaging tools to identify gray matter pathology and develop therapies that slow or stop the cortical degeneration. The therapies now in development target white matter pathology. And scientists still have to figure out the relationship between the inflammation in the white matter and the cortical damage.

link

Neurologists and drug companies continue to treat white matter lesions and ignore the glaring evidence of gray matter atrophy. This must change.
cheer

Very interesting--thanks for posting--but this also makes it clear we know SO VERY litte about this disease--

How about these ones. The iron link?



Quantitative assessment of brain iron by R2* relaxometry in patients with clinically isolated syndrome and relapsing–remitting multiple sclerosis
http://www.springerlink.com/content/ekr ... pdf?page=1


The basal ganglia in haemochromatosis
Haemochromatosis is characterised by deposition of ironcontaining
pigment in various organs, but little is known about possible
deposition in the brain and its clinical impact. We therefore investigated
14 patients with hereditary haemochromatosis with MRI,
CT and transcranial ultrasound (TCS) and examined them neurologically.
In six of the patients dense lesions were found within the lentiform
nucleus on CT, all of whom displayed hyperechogenic lesions in
the same area on TCS, as did one other patient. In these patients the
relative signal intensities of the lentiform nucleus measured by MRI
relaxometry were higher. No patient had clinical signs of basal ganglia
disorders.

http://www.springerlink.com/content/ekr ... pdf?page=1


Quantitative Assessment of Iron Accumulation in the Deep Gray Matter of Multiple Sclerosis by Magnetic Field Correlation Imaging

http://www.ajnr.org/cgi/content/full/28/9/1639

curious, has anyone here at TIMS been tested and knows they have haemochromatosis? yes? no? do you know if your ferritin levels are high, or low?

HI,
I have been tested for serum ferritin and serum iron. My dr would not do transferrin saturation (I think its called that).

My iron levels appear to be normal. I am very stable at the moment and I would be interested in doing them again during a relapse. (I also am going to try to get the transferrin blood test done too)

L

cheerleader wrote:Hey Mark-
That's a new paper. Thanks. There are five new papers out on gray matter loss and MS from November 2009- present. More and more researchers are finding the link to gray matter loss and disability and progression. We have often noted on here that it's "NOT about the white matter lesions" since many of our members have few or none, and are progressive. This is why it is ESSENTIAL that patients are tested for venous insufficiency and treated before the brain atrophies..

Neurologists aren't ignoring gray matter atrophy--that is one of the hottest topics these days. Whether CCSVI treatment serves to alleviate that, however remains to be seen. Neurologists have been fairly up front about the fact that "lesion load does not correlate with disability." --those exact words are bandied around quite a bit. ...just to clarify. I am as hopeful as all of you that CCSVI will indeed halt brain atrophy, but it will realistically take years of observing MS brains to really "prove" that.