Significant reduction in cortical cerebral blood flow (CBF) and cerebral blood volume (CBV) reduction was present in cognitively impaired (CI) patients with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS) vs similar patients with no impairment (NI) in the absence of structural differences. This according to a study of 20 CI patients, 19 NI patients, and 19 healthy controls who underwent MRI and cognitive testing. Researchers found:

• No significant differences were seen in RRMS subgroups for age, gender, disease duration, and any fractional brain or lesion volume.

• EDSS and HADS-D scores were higher in CI patients.

• Lobar cortical CBF and CBV were associated with cognitive impairment after controlling for confounders.

• Cortical CBV accounted for 7.2% of cognitive impairment, increasing to 8.7% with cortical CBF, while white matter and cortical CBF accounted for 8.2% of variance.

Citation: Seyed-Parsa H, Cantrell CG, Carroll TJ, et al. Perfusion reduction in the absence of structural differences in cognitively impaired versus unimpaired RRMS patients. [Published online ahead of print February 4, 2016]. Mult Scler. doi:10.1177/1352458516628656.