The clinical impact of cerebellar grey matter pathology in multiple sclerosis.

Abstract

BackgroundThe cerebellum is an important site for cortical demyelination in multiple sclerosis, but the functional significance of this finding is not fully understood.ObjectiveTo evaluate the clinical and cognitive impact of cerebellar grey-matter pathology in multiple sclerosis patients.MethodsForty-two relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis patients and 30 controls underwent clinical assessment including the Multiple Sclerosis Functional Composite, Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS) and cerebellar functional system (FS) score, and cognitive evaluation, including the Paced Auditory Serial Addition Test (PASAT) and the Symbol-Digit Modalities Test (SDMT). Magnetic resonance imaging was performed with a 3T scanner and variables of interest were: brain white-matter and cortical lesion load, cerebellar intracortical and leukocortical lesion volumes, and brain cortical and cerebellar white-matter and grey-matter volumes.ResultsAfter multivariate analysis high burden of cerebellar intracortical lesions was the only predictor for the EDSS (pConclusionsCerebellar grey-matter pathology is widely present and contributes to clinical dysfunction in relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis patients, independently of brain grey-matter damage.