ECTRIMS 2022 | Relationship between UCC atrophy and brain metrics of disease activity in MS

Burcu Zeydan, MD, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, discusses the relationship between upper cervical cord (UCC) measurements and common brain imaging metrics of multiple sclerosis (MS). A recent study was conducted to analyze the relationship between UCC volume and common brain metrics of MS disease activity and progression. A novel automated method was used to evaluate lower brainstem and UCC volumes (medulla, cervicomedullary junction, C1, C2) from brain MRIs from MS patients in the relapsing and progressive phase. Another automated method was used to obtain several common brain metrics of MS. The results showed that the lower brainstem and the UCC volumes correlated the most with the whole brain and thalamus volumes. Although these imaging metrics are usually treated as independent variables, they also appear to interact. Therefore, they could potentially be used as part of a composite metric accounting for particularly thalamus and UCC volumes that could be used as a complementary imaging outcome in MS trials. This interview took place at the European Committee for Treatment and Research in Multiple Sclerosis (ECTRIMS) Congress 2022 in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

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