Typically, lesions uniquely detected at 3T were in the periventricular white matter, cortical, or juxtacortical region. Correlations between disease duration, EDSS score, or T25FW with 1.5T and 3T FLLV were weak and nonsignificant except for a moderate association between EDSS score and 3T FLLV (Spearman’s r= .39, P= .03) (Table 3). There was no significant difference in FLLV between relapsing (n= 26) and progressive patients (n= 6) at 1.5T (Relapsing: 8,967 ± 13,814; progressive: 8,257 ± 11,282 mm3; P= .69) or 3T (Relapsing: 10,859 ± 15,876; progressive:

10,544 ± 9,883 mm3; P= .33), but this comparison was likely underpowered due to a small sample size. Mean NAART full scale interquartile score was similar for both patient (111 ± 8.5) and control populations (111 ± 10.5) (P > .05). Both control (16.5 ± 1.9 years) and patient populations (15.9 ± this website 2.7 years) were highly educated (P > .05). Three patients (13%) scored less than 1.5 standard deviations below the mean on 2 or more cognitive tasks when compared to normal

controls, meeting established criteria2 for cognitive impairment. Six patients (25%) were impaired on at least 1 cognitive measure. Significant lesion-cognition associations for PASAT2, BVMT DR, JLO, SDMT, CVLT DR, and CVLT TL (Table 4, Fig 2) were observed at 3T after controlling for age and depression score, and the partial correlation coefficients were strong for SDMT and JLO (rs > .65). Conversely, only JLO, SDMT, and CVLT DR were significantly associated with FLLV at 1.5T after controlling for age and depression score, but the strength of association buy Forskolin was less in each case. Other cognitive measures did not significantly correlate with FLLV at either 1.5T or 3T (Table 4). Results were not substantially altered

when age alone or age selleck screening library + depression + gender were controlled for in the modeling (data not shown). In this preliminary MRI study, the first to examine 3T brain lesion load-clinical correlations, we report 3 major observations. The first is that in an MS population a 3T platform yielded a higher cerebral lesion load than a 1.5T platform using FLAIR. Second, when assessing the validity of the MRI-based lesion load measurement in relation to physical disability, the 3T platform showed the only significant correlation. Third, when assessing the relationship between MRI-determined lesions and cognitive function, the 3T platform showed stronger and more frequent association between cognitive domains than the 1.5T platform. Our findings of increased sensitivity at 3T for detecting MS-related cerebral structural changes extend previous observations that found enhanced sensitivity at 3T when compared to 1.5T. Wattjes et al.12 reported an increased number of CIS patients who met MS diagnostic criteria at 3T. Enhanced sensitivity for cortical lesions17 and white matter lesions (both unenhanced and gadolinium enhanced)15,16 has also been reported.