The addition of a novel gray matter (GM)-double inversion recovery technique enhanced specificity for diagnosing multiple sclerosis (MS) compared with established magnetic resonance (MR) imaging criteria, a recent, cross-sectional, observational study found. MR imaging data were acquired between 2011 and 2016. A novel double inversion recovery sequence that suppresses cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and GM signal was used (GM-double inversion recovery). Researchers compared white matter (WM) lesions in a group of patients with MS and in a second group of positive controls with WM lesions who did not have a diagnosis of MS. MR images from 107 patients with relapsing-remitting MS (median age, 32 years) and 36 positive control (median age, 39 years) subjects were analyzed. They found:

• No significant differences were found in age and sex.
• In patients with MS, 1,120/3,211 lesions (35%) had a rim on GM-double inversion recovery; the positive control group had only 9/893 rim lesions (1%).
• Rims were associated with a decrease in the lesion T1 ratio.