We evaluated brain tissue compartments in 72 healthy volunteers between the ages of 18 and 81 years with quantitative MRI. The intracranial fraction of white matter was significantly lower in the age categories above 59 years. The CSF fraction increased significantly with age, consistent with previous reports. The intracranial percentage of gray matter decreased somewhat with age, but there was no significant difference between the youngest subjects and the subjects above 59. A covariance adjustment for the volume of hyperintensities did not alter the foregoing results. The intracranial percentage of white matter volume was strongly correlated with the percentage volume of CSF. The finding of a highly significant decrease with age in white matter, in the absence of a substantial decrease in gray matter, is consistent with recent neuropathologic reports in humans and nonhuman primates.

MR-guided interventional procedures can be performed with full patient access with use of an open-configuration, superconducting MR magnet with near real-time imaging and interactive image plane control.

During a 1-year period mean cognitive performance did not worsen. Automated volumetric MRI measures of total lesion volume and brain to intracranial cavity volume ratio correlated with neuropsychological performance, especially in patients with chronic progressive MS. Worsening MRI lesion burden correlated with cognitive decline.

These results suggest that damage to discrete frontal and occipitoparietal periventricular white matter locations may be associated with a mobility disorder of aging.

There is a linkage between peripheral T-lymphocyte activation as measured by cell surface markers and disease activity in patients with multiple sclerosis. Arch Neurol. 2000;57:1183-1189