Recent years have witnessed dramatic advances in the development and use of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) techniques that can provide quantitative measures with some degree of pathological specificity for the heterogeneous substrates of multiple sclerosis (MS). Magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) is one of the most promising of these techniques. Thanks to MRS, axonal damage is no longer considered an end-stage phenomenon typical of only the most destructive lesions and the most unfortunate cases, but rather as a major component of the MS pathology of lesions and normal-appearing white matter at all the phases of the disease. This new concept is rapidly changing our understanding of MS pathophysiology and, as a consequence, the therapeutic strategies to modify the disease course favorably. Many of the authors have pionereed the use of MRS in MS, thus contributing to the foundation of the "axonal hypothesis".

Inhalt

1 - Axonal Signals and Central Nervous System Myelination.- 2 - Axonal Loss in Multiple Sclerosis.- 3 - Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy: Fundamentals.- 4 - Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy in Experimental Allergic Encephalomyelitis.- 5 - Axonal Injury and Disability in Multiple Sclerosis: Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy as a Measure of Dynamic Pathological Change in White Matter.- 6 - Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Multiple Sclerosis: Cortical Reorganisation and Recovery.- 7 - Correlations between Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy and Other Magnetic Resonance Parameters in Multiple Sclerosis.- 8 - Magnetization Transfer and Diffusion-Weighted Magnetic Resonance Imaging in Multiple Sclerosis and Other in White Matter Diseases.- 9 - New Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy Strategies.- 10 - Optimization and Standardization of Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy Techniques for Multicenter Longitudinal Multiple Sclerosis Studies.- 11 - Overview of Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy Studies in White Matter Diseases Other than Multiple Sclerosis.- 12 - Overview of Magnetic Resonance Studies in Other Neurological Conditions.