Spatiotemporal distribution of white matter lesions in relapsing-remitting and secondary progressive multiple sclerosis.

BackgroundMultiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic inflammatory disease of the central nervous system. MS lesions show a typical distribution pattern and primarily affect the white matter (WM) in the periventricular zone and in the centrum semiovale.ObjectiveTo track lesion development during disease progression, we compared the spatiotemporal distribution patterns of lesions in relapsing-remitting MS (RRMS) and secondary progressive MS (SPMS).MethodsWe used T1 and T2 weighted MR images of 209 RRMS and 62 SPMS patients acquired on two different 1.5 Tesla MR scanners in two clinical centers followed up for 25 (± 1.7) months. Both cross-sectional and longitudinal differences in lesion distribution between RRMS and SPMS patients were analyzed with lesion probability maps (LPMs) and permutation-based inference.ResultsMS lesions clustered around the lateral ventricles and in the centrum semiovale. Cross-sectionally, compared to RRMS patients, the SPMS patients showed a significantly higher regional probability of T1 hypointense lesions (p ≤ 0.03) in the callosal body, the corticospinal tract, and other tracts adjacent to the lateral ventricles, but not of T2 lesions (peak probabilities were RRMS: T1 9%, T2 18%; SPMS: T1 21%, T2 27%). No longitudinal changes of regional T1 and T2 lesion volumes between baseline and follow-up scan were found.ConclusionThe results suggest a particular vulnerability to neurodegeneration during disease progression in a number of WM tracts.