Okay, you can tell I've been surfing again, sorry, I'm just a noisy person I guess. The effects of MS on the brain is one of my weaknesses, as I want to understand what is happening to all of us.
This is just a partial of an article written in 06, but I thought it was rather interesting. The web site for the entire article is: http:// www. sciencedaily.com/ releases/2006/08/060829080502. htm (take out spaces)
_______________________
ScienceDaily (Aug. 30, 2006) — The effects of multiple sclerosis (MS) extend beyond visibly affected areas into large portions of the brain that outwardly appear normal, according to a study appearing in the September issue of Radiology.
"This disease process in the normal-appearing brain tissue affects the brain globally and has substantial clinical impact," said the study's lead author, Hugo Vrenken, Ph.D., from the Multiple Sclerosis Center at VU University Medical Center in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
"The areas of demyelination, or lesions, in patients with MS can be visualized with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). However, the volume of lesions visible at MRI only correlates moderately with clinical disability measurements," Dr. Vrenken said. "This may be due to disease activity outside the visible lesions."
To gain a better understanding of the effects of MS on the whole brain, Dr. Vrenken and colleagues studied T1 changes in normal-appearing white and gray brain matter in patients with MS.
The researchers investigated T1 changes in 67 patients with MS and 24 healthy control volunteers. T1 graphs of normal appearing white and gray matter were significantly different for patients with MS than for controls. Moreover, these graphs differed among patients with MS based on the type of disease: secondary progressive (SP), relapsing-remitting (RR) or primary progressive (PP). The results were most pronounced in patients with SP disease, where at least 31 percent of normal-appearing white matter and 20 percent of cortical normal-appearing gray matter were affected. In RR disease, 16 percent of normal-appearing white matter and 9 percent of cortical normal-appearing gray matter were affected. In PP disease, the normal-appearing white and gray matter affected were 11 percent and 8 percent, respectively. These changes were found throughout the brain, including areas remote from localized lesions that are typically associated with MS.
"These findings demonstrate that in MS, disease processes outside MR-visible lesions are not limited to a few sites but act throughout the brain and affect large fractions of normal-appearing white and gray matter," Dr. Vrenken said.
The researchers also explored correlations between the areas of the brain being analyzed in the patients with MS and the level of atrophy or clinical disability present.
"The results suggest that the damage to normal-appearing brain tissue plays a larger role in the progression of atrophy and clinical disability than do the visible lesions," Dr. Vrenken said.