In this section
@article{De:1997,
author = {De, Stefano N and Federico, A and Mortilla, M and Narayanan, S and Dotti, MT and Dal, Pozzo G and Matthews, PM and Arnold, DI},
journal = {Italian Journal of Neurological Sciences},
title = {Brain N-acetylaspartate as detected by proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy correlates with central nervous system impairment in patients with white matter disorders},
volume = {18},
year = {1997}
}
TY - JOUR
AB - The use of magnetic resonance (MR) imaging (MRI) has provided important new insights into the understanding of brain white matter (WM) disorders. However, brain WM abnormalities as detected by conventional MRI do not always give a reliable indication of the severity of the patients' clinical status. Proton MR Spectroscopy (MRS) has demonstrated decreases in N-Acetylaspartate (NAA) in the brains of patients with different brain WM disorders. NAA, a putative index of axonal damage or loss, has shown a strong correlation with the degree of disability in patients with multiple sclerosis. In this study, we used single voxel proton MRS for assessing brain NAA in 13 patients affected by 13 different pathologies involving the brain white matter. Results showed that brain NAA to creatine ratio correlated strongly with patients' central nervous system impairment (measured using the Functional Status Scale) (r= -0.77, p<0.003). hi contrast, a strong relationship was not found between brain abnormalities detected by conventional MRI and patients' clinical status. Our study suggests that the axonal damage that leads to decreases in NAA can be independent of the degree of white matter abnormalities appearing on conventional MRI and may represent a more proximate cause of functional impairment in different brain WM diseases.
AU - De,Stefano N
AU - Federico,A
AU - Mortilla,M
AU - Narayanan,S
AU - Dotti,MT
AU - Dal,Pozzo G
AU - Matthews,PM
AU - Arnold,DI
PY - 1997///
SN - 0392-0461
TI - Brain N-acetylaspartate as detected by proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy correlates with central nervous system impairment in patients with white matter disorders
T2 - Italian Journal of Neurological Sciences
VL - 18
ER -