Magnetic Resonance Imaging in the Diagnosis of Multiple Sclerosis

Abstract

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is the most important paraclinical measure for evaluating and following the pathologic changes initially and late stages of multiple sclerosis. Although the diagnosis of multiple sclerosis is mainly based on clinical findings, MRI is integrated in the overall diagnostic steps of the disease for its unique sensitivity to display the spatial and temporal disse mination of demyelinating plaques in the brain and spinal cord. Conventional MRI techniques, such as T2-weighted and gadolinium-enhanced T1-weighted sequences are highly sensitive in detecting multiple sclerosis plaques and provide the extent of inflammatory activity and lesion load. However, due to the disparity between clinical and MRI results this technique does not totally explain thecomplete spectrum of the disease process. This article will focus on diagnostic pearls of MRI in multiple sclerosis.