CLINICAL, NEUROPHYSIOLOGICAL, AND MAGNETIC-RESONANCE-IMAGING CORRELATIONS IN MULTIPLE-SCLEROSIS

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has a pivotal role in diagnosis of mu ltiple sclerosis and is being increasingly used as a paraclinical meas ure to assess treatment efficacy in clinical trials. However, the corr elations between clinical and MRI findings in patients with multiple s clerosis are weak and, therefore, newer MR techniques are being develo ped to increase both MRI sensitivity for detecting disease activity an d its pathological specificity for better assessing disease evolution. Evoked potentials (EPs) can be used to confirm the diagnosis of multi ple sclerosis and their abnormalities are correlated with symptoms and signs referable to involvement of the corresponding nervous pathways. However, their use is limited when assessing disease progression and monitoring clinical trials in multiple sclerosis. Both magnetic resona nce imaging (MRI) and evoked potentials (EPs) provide information whic h cannot be obtained by clinical evaluation, especially for assessing disease activity. Nevertheless, both these paraclinicaI techniques can not substitute for clinical measures of disability when assessing dise ase progression and monitoring phase III clinical trials in multiple s clerosis.