Detection of Cortical Inflammatory Lesions by Double Inversion Recovery Magnetic Resonance Imaging in Patients With Multiple Sclerosis

Abstract

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic, inflammatory demyelinating disease of the central nervous system.^1,2 Although demyelination remains a disease hallmark,³ the classic concept of MS as a pure white matter (WM) disease has been revised on the basis of increasing pathologic evidence that focal cortical damage (ie, juxtacortical, intracortical, and subpial lesions) is common in brains affected by MS.^4,5 Besides ex vivo studies, a number of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) reports^6-13 have shown that a remarkable loss of neocortical volume can be observed in patients with MS in vivo and that gray matter (GM) damage can be relevant for the development of disability.