clinical significance of diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging on treatment efficacy in ms patients with acute attacks

Introduction: despite various imaging methods, the accurate diagnosis of numerousneurodegenerative diseases remains controversial. using advanced imaging techniques, likediffusion-weighted imaging, can help the early detection of multiple sclerosis (ms) andevaluation of the treatment efficacy in these patients.methods: in total, 24 ms patients with acute attack and 30 healthy subjects were consideredin our study. region of interest (roi) was defined for acute and chronic plaques and normal-appearing white matter (nawm) in the patients’ group. in the normal group, roi only wasmapped in the white matter in the same regions of the patient. all ms patients were receivingmethylprednisolone for 3 to 5 days. the rate of clinical disability in these patients was alsoevaluated based on the expanded disability status scale (edss) index. finally evaluatechanges of adc values of plaques and nawm before and after treatment.results: the apparent diffusion coefficient (adc) values of acute plaques, the adc valuesof nawm, the number of enhancement in t1w, and edss values suggested a significantdifference after treatment compared to before treatment. however, the adc values of chronicplaques revealed no significant difference after treatment. there was a significant positivecorrelation between the difference in edss values before and after treatment.conclusion: the study results demonstrated that using diffusion technique and adc valuesanalysis is a proper non-invasive method for ms diagnosis and evaluating treatment efficacyin these patients.