Cortical demyelination is common early in the course of multiple sclerosis and is inflammatory in nature, according to an analysis of brain biopsy samples containing cortical tissue.
"These findings do not support a primary (noninflammatory) neurodegenerative process during early-stage multiple sclerosis," Dr. Claudia F. Lucchinetti of the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn., and her associates wrote in the Dec. 8 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.
Most previous studies of cortical lesions have focused on autopsy findings in patients with longstanding multiple sclerosis and "have suggested that neurodegeneration proceeds independently of parenchymal inflammation," the investigators noted....Read More - http://www.msrc.co.uk/index.cfm/fuseact ... ageid/1817