Finding a Better MRI Marker for MS Disability Progression

Updated November 18, 2019

News outlets reported on a retrospective five-year study of 1,314 patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) by researchers in the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences. The team found that atrophied brain lesion volume is the only marker from MRI scans that can accurately predict which patients will progress to the most severe form of the disease. “This study corroborates initial reports from our group regarding using atrophied lesion volume as a potential MRI marker of disease progression in a large, population-based cohort of MS patients followed in clinical routine,” said Robert Zivadinov, MD, PhD, professor of neurology in the Jacobs School and director of the Buffalo Neuroimaging Analysis Center and the Center for Biomedical Imaging at UB’s Clinical and Translational Science Institute.