University of Campania “Luigi Vanvitelli”
Department of Advanced Medical and Surgical Sciences

Author Of 1 Presentation

Imaging Poster Presentation

P0650 - The contribution of cortical lesions to fatigue  and depression in relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis. (ID 1163)

Speakers
Presentation Number
P0650
Presentation Topic
Imaging

Abstract

Background

Despite the high prevalence and debilitating nature of fatigue and depression in Relapsing-Remitting Multiple Sclerosis (RRMS), the underlying pathophysiology is still far from being fully understood. While several findings highlighted the contribution of white matter lesion load (WMLL) and brain atrophy, the role of cortical lesions (CL) has been only marginally assessed.

Objectives

To investigate: i) the contribution of CL volume to fatigue and depression; ii) the relative role of total CL volume (tCLV), intracortical lesion volume (ICLV) and juxtacortical lesion volume (JCLV).

Methods

Sixty-five RRMS patients underwent: i) clinical evaluation including the Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS), ii) assessment of fatigue and depression trough the Modified Fatigue Impact Scale (MFIS) and the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), iii) a 3T–MRI protocol including Double-Echo (DE) and 3D–Double Inversion Recovery (DIR) imaging to identify WMLL and CL. Correlation analyses were run between WMLL, CL and MFIS, and BDI. A multiple linear regression model was applied to evaluate the contribution of CL to MFIS and BDI, controlling for clinico-demographic data and WMLL.

Results

The correlation analysis showed that tCLV and JCLV correlated with MFIS (rho= 0.31, p=0.007; rho= 0.28, p=0.01 rispectively) and BDI (rho= 0.24, p=0.03 and rho= 0.23, p=0.04, rispectively), while ICLV or WMLL did not correlate with neither MFIS nor BDI. Regression analysis did not reveal any CL volume as a significant predictor of fatigue or depression.

Conclusions

Although CL volume is not a significant independent predictor of fatigue and depression, our study shows a significant role of CL volume in determining these symptoms in RRMS.

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