Substantia Nigra Pathology Predicts Disability in Multiple Sclerosis

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is known to affect the basal ganglia and other gray-matter regions (Neurology 2007; 68:634). Involvement of gray matter correlates with numerous clinical manifestations of the disease, such as fatigue, physical disability, and cognitive impairment. Now, researchers have used transcranial neurosonology, a novel imaging approach, to assess the basal ganglia in 75 patients with MS and in 55 healthy controls.

Compared with the controls, the patients with MS were more likely to show hyperechogenicity in the substantia nigra, lentiform nucleus, caudate nucleus, and thalamus. The size of echogenic area in some of the gray-matter structures correlated with hypointensity on T2-weighted magnetic resonance images (MRIs), suggest…