Abstract Details

Title Clinical Disability Worsening Correlates Preferentially with Atrophy of Thalamic Subregions in Patients with Multiple Sclerosis

Topic Multiple Sclerosis

Presentation(s) P1 - Poster Session 1 (12:00 PM-1:00 PM)

Poster/Presentation
Number 9-008

Objective To examine the relationship between clinical and radiographic measures with atrophy of individual thalamic subregions.

Background

Thalamic atrophy occurs early in MS and is associated with physical disability and cognitive impairment.

Design/Methods We obtained neuroperformance measures and 3T MRI in 16 subjects with MS [8 relapsing remitting (RR), 8 secondary progressive (SP)] and 16 healthy controls (HC) at baseline and 6 months. Multiple Automatically Generated Templates (MAGeT) brain segmentation was used to obtain volumes of individual thalami subregions (left and right) and Jacobian integration (JI) was used to calculate changes in volume over 6 months.

Results Increases in the timed 25-foot walk (T25FW) correlated with decreases in the right anterior (Spearman’s rho -0.59), ventral anterior (Spearman’s rho -0.59), and ventral lateral (Spearman’s rho -0.54) nuclei; all p < 0.05.

Conclusions Atrophy of certain thalamic subregions correlated with worsening of walking speed (T25FW) over 6 months in a small pilot study of patients with MS. Evaluating specific thalamic subregional volumes may better reflect clinical disability and neurodegeneration in MS. Further studies with a larger cohort and longer follow-up may provide a better insight into the use of thalamic subregions as imaging biomarkers of neuroperformance in MS.

Authors/Disclosures
Kedar Mahajan, MD, PhD PRESENTER	Dr. Mahajan has received personal compensation in the range of $500-$4,999 for serving as a Consultant for Bristol Myers Squibb. Dr. Mahajan has received personal compensation in the range of $5,000-$9,999 for serving as a Consultant for Genentech.
Kunio Nakamura, PhD (Cleveland Clinic)	Dr. Nakamura has received personal compensation in the range of $500-$4,999 for serving on a Scientific Advisory or Data Safety Monitoring board for INmune Bio. The institution of Dr. Nakamura has received research support from Biogen. The institution of Dr. Nakamura has received research support from PCORI. The institution of Dr. Nakamura has received research support from NIH. The institution of Dr. Nakamura has received research support from Genzyme. The institution of Dr. Nakamura has received research support from NIH. The institution of Dr. Nakamura has received research support from Genzyme. The institution of Dr. Nakamura has received research support from Novartis. The institution of Dr. Nakamura has received research support from DOD. Dr. Nakamura has received intellectual property interests from a discovery or technology relating to health care.
Daniel Ontaneda, MD, PhD, FAAN (Cleveland Clinic)	Dr. Ontaneda has received personal compensation in the range of $500-$4,999 for serving as a Consultant for Novartis. Dr. Ontaneda has received personal compensation in the range of $500-$4,999 for serving as a Consultant for Genentech/Roche. Dr. Ontaneda has received personal compensation in the range of $500-$4,999 for serving as a Consultant for Biogen Idec. Dr. Ontaneda has received personal compensation in the range of $500-$4,999 for serving as a Consultant for BMS. Dr. Ontaneda has received personal compensation in the range of $500-$4,999 for serving as a Consultant for Sanofi. The institution of Dr. Ontaneda has received research support from NIH. The institution of Dr. Ontaneda has received research support from PCORI. The institution of Dr. Ontaneda has received research support from NMSS. The institution of Dr. Ontaneda has received research support from Genetech.