Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the central nervous system (CNS) is currently the most important imaging tool for diagnosis and monitoring of multiple sclerosis (MS). Recently several studies were published looking for the correlation between neuroimaging, clinics and pathology in the CNS during MS. These efforts are focused on seeking correlation between changes in MRI scans and inflammation, demyelination, neurodegeneration and gliosis in CNS. T1-weighted hypointensive lesions in MS correlate mostly with demyelination and neuronal loss. Moreover many trials indicate that the volume of T1-hypointense lesions correlate well with clinical disability in MS patients. Gadolinium enhancement in T1-weighted images reflects blood-brain barrier (BBB) breakdown and histologically correlates with the inflammatory phase of lesion development. Most MS lesions are hyperintense on T2-weighted MRI scans. The appearance of MRI changes in MS is not typical for any kind of tissue destruction. There are some trials suggesting that in clinically isolated syndromes (CIS) the number of cerebral T2-lesions is predictive for the development of definite MS in the future. All of data presented above indicate that there are still many problems with correlating CNS neuroimaging data from MS patients with their clinical status as well as with CNS histopathology. However, there is some progress in that field lately because of development of the new MRI techniques.

multiple sclerosis, magnetic resonance imaging, inflammation, demyelination, neurodegeneration, gliosis