Radiography; Magnetic Resonance Imaging: Lecturing

Multiple Sclerosis; Disease related symptoms; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Diffusion Weighted Imaging

Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is a chronic and disabling disease that diffusively attacks the central nervous system (CNS). Although its cause is unknown, MS is thought to be an autoimmune disease triggered by viral or other infectious agents in genetically susceptible individuals. In MS, fatigue is one of the most common symptoms, being expressed in more than 80 per cent of the patients. It contributes significantly to disease-related disability and reduced quality of life and constitutes one of the main reasons for unemployment. The pathophysiological mechanisms causing fatigue are still poorly understood and the objective assessment as well as treatment remains a challenge. Fatigue can either be defined as a primary or a secondary phenomenon. Primary fatigue results from processes directly related to the disease such as demyelination or axonal degeneration in CNS whereas factors that cause secondary fatigue are pain, sleep problems, depression, medication, reduced activity etc.

In this study we wish to identify structural brain abnormalities that reliably can be used to predict the individual severity of fatigue in a given patient. We apply conventional and more sophisticated magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) techniques to explore if MS patients with fatigue have a specific pattern of grey matter atrophy or microstructural abnormalities in specific white matter fibre tracts in the brain.