Added Value of Susceptibility Weighted Imaging (SWI) in Diagnosis of Multiple Sclerosis (MS)

Abstract

Abstract Background: There are a number of challenges in MS clinical practice, including the limitations of conventional MRI techniques in the diagnosis, subtyping, predicting disease course, and monitoring of people suffering from MS. Suscep-tibility Weighted Imaging (SWI) is a relatively new MR sequence that has the ability for simultaneous visualization of hyperintense MS lesions and their central veins. Aim of Study: To assess the role of MR susceptibility weighted imaging in comparison with T2 and FLAIR sequences in evaluation of MS lesions. Patients and Methods: In this prospective study, 30 patients with clinical diagnosis of MS were enrolled. All patients were undergone brain MRI consisting T2W, FLAIR and SWI se-quences. All sequences were analyzed for the presence and number of MS plaques. Moreover, the detection of central veins in MS plaques were assessed by SWI. Results: Our study included 30 MS patients: 5 patients (16.7%) had disease duration more than 5 years and 15 patients (83.3%) with disease duration less than 5 years. All obtained sequences showed fewer number of plaques as the disease duration was less (p < 0.05). SWI has also the ability of detection central vein in MS plaques. Conclusion: SWI is an additional sequence, that together to conventional MRI sequences, helps to characterize the white matter lesions detected in multiple sclerosis diagnosis with superiority of detecting central veins which improves the understanding of the MS pathogenesis.