In multiple sclerosis (MS), conventional magnetic resonance imaging (cMRI) has proved to be a valuable tool to increase diagnostic confidence and for monitoring the efficacy of experimental treatment. However, cMRI has limited specificity and accuracy of cMRI to the most disabling aspects of the MS pathology, known to occur in and outside macroscopic lesions. Modern quantitative MR techniques have the potential to overcome the limitations of cMRI, and their application is changing dramatically our understanding of how MS causes irreversible disability. In detail, there is an increasing body of MR evidence that MS is not only a white matter disease and does not only cause focal lesions, as well as that neurodegeneration is an important aspect of the disease (since the earliest clinical phases), which is only partially related to inflammatory changes. There is also increasing perception that modern MR methodologies should be more extensively employed in clinical trials to derive innovative information.

Written by world-renowned scientists, the volume provides a state-of-the-art on the most recent MRI techniques related to MS, and it will bi and indispensable tool for all those working in this field.

The application of modern quantitative MR techniques is changing dramatically our understanding of how MS causes irreversible disability These techniques evidence that MS is not only a white matter disease and that neurodegeneration is an important aspect of it

Autorentext

Dr. Massimo Filippi was born in 1961, took his Graduation in Medicine in 1986 and his Post-Degree Graduation in Neurology in 1990. His research activity has always been focussed on the use of MR-based technology to improve our understanding of how neurological diseases determine progressive accumulation of irreversible physical disability and cognitive impairment.

Dr. Filippi is member of various Scientific Societies and, in some of them, he covered or is covering institutional roles. He is also member of the Editorial Boards of many international scientific journals and acts as a reviewer on a regular basis for several others. He is author or co-author of more than 450 scientific papers published on peer-reviewed journals.

Dr. Filippi is currently Dierctor of the Neuroimaging Research Unit (NRU), Department of Neurology, Scientific Institute and University Ospedale San Raffaele, Milan, where he is also Non-Tenured Professor of Clinical Neurology. From 2005 he is also Director of the NMR Unit, Centro "S. Maria Nascente" IRCCS Fondazione Don Gnocchi, Milan.

Inhalt
Background.- Neuropathological Advances in Multiple Sclerosis.- Neurophysiology.- MRI Techniques to Assess Neurodegeneration.- Atrophy.- T1 Black Holes and Gray Matter Damage.- Magnetization Transfer Imaging.- Perfusion MR I.- Diffusion-Weighted Imaging.- Proton MR Spectroscopy.- Functional MRI.- Evaluation of MRI Outcomes.- Validation of MRI Surrogates.- Defining Responders and Non-responders.- Predictive Models in Multimodal Imaging.- Lessons from Other Neurodegenerative Diseases.- Alzheimer's Disease.- Other Neurodegenerative Conditions.- Incorporation of Other Biomarkers.- Designing MS Trials for Neurodegeneration.- Critical Review of Existing Trials.- Design for the Next Trials of Neurodegeneration.