Cognitively Impaired Patients with MS Have Abnormal White-Matter Integrity

Cognitive impairment is common in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS). White-matter lesions can sever connections between brain regions, resulting in diminished attention, processing speed, short-term memory, and word retrieval. Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) is a research technique that provides a quantitative assessment of tissue integrity within and outside of white-matter lesions and of directionality. Researchers compared DTI findings in 55 patients with MS — 20 of whom had impairment on a cognitive battery — and 30 healthy controls.

Compared with controls, cognitively preserved MS patients had altered DTI parameters of fractional anisotropy (FA) and radial diffusivity (RD) in 49% and 62% of white-matter voxels, respectively. Cognitiv…