APPARENT DIFFUSION-COEFFICIENTS IN BENIGN AND SECONDARY PROGRESSIVE MULTIPLE-SCLEROSIS BY NUCLEAR-MAGNETIC-RESONANCE

The diffusion characteristics of water in brain white matter were stud ied in patients with benign and secondary progressive multiple scleros is (MS), and also in normal controls, In the MS patients, both lesions and normal-appearing white matter (NAWM) were examined to assess whet her pathological differences might be evident from the diffusion behav ior, A volume-selective technique was used to reduce data acquisition time and improve the reliability and precision of the measurements, Th is also allowed the time-dependence of apparent diffusion coefficients to be assessed, While lesions from both patient groups showed an elev ated diffusion coefficient, no differences between the two groups were found, In addition, NAWM was elevated for both patient groups compare d with the control group, although this was only statistically signifi cant for patients with a benign disease course, The degree of elevatio n of the diffusion coefficient within the individual lesions measured was not related to the disability of the patient, Pathological differe nces between lesions in patients with different disease courses, if th ey exist, have not been detected in this study of brain water diffusio n.