Consistent regional frontal cortical perfusion deficits are present in patients with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (MS), with more widespread hypoperfusion in those with cognitive impairment, independent of structural differences, a recent study found. This indicates that cortical perfusion may be a useful biomarker of cortical dysfunction and cognitive impairment in MS. Researchers evaluated 39 patients with relapsing-remitting MS (20 cognitively impaired, 19 nonimpaired) and 19 age- and sex-matched healthy controls. They found:

• After adjusting for localized volumetric differences in the right frontal, temporal, and occipital lobes, progressive cerebral blood flow (CBF) and cerebral blood volume (CBV) deficits were present in the left middle frontal cortex for all cohorts and in the left superior frontal gyrus for patients with cognitive impairment, compared with patients without impairment or controls.

• Compared with healthy controls, reduced CBF was present in the limbic regions of patients with cognitive impairment, and reduced CBV was present in the right middle frontal gyrus in patients with cognitive impairment and in the temporal gyrus of relapsing-remitting MS patients without cognitive impairment.

Citation: Vitorino R, Hojjat SP, Cantrell CG, et al. Regional frontal perfusion deficits in relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis with cognitive decline. [Published online ahead of print May 19, 2016]. AJNR Am J Neuroradiol. doi:10.3174/ajnr.A4824.