Development of a Neuroimaging Biomarker for Lesion Recovery in Multiple Sclerosis

• Activity Number: 629
• Type: Invited
• Date/Time: Thursday, August 4, 2016 : 8:30 AM to 10:20 AM
• Sponsor: Biometrics Section
• Author(s): Elizabeth M. Sweeney* and Michelle Ross and John Muschelli and Benjamin Risk and Daniel Reich and Ani Eloyan and Ciprian Crainiceanu and Russell Shinohara
• Companies: Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and University of Pennsylvania and The Johns Hopkins University and Statistical and Applied Mathematical Sciences Institute and National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke and Brown University and The Johns Hopkins University and University of Pennsylvania
• Keywords: magnetic resonance imaging ; multiple sclerosis ; longitudinal analysis ; spatial statistics

Abstract

While neuroimaging studies are widely used in clinical practice and research, the number of neuroimaging-based biomarkers is small. Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a disease of the central nervous system that is characterized by brain and spinal cord lesions. In MS clinical trials the only major neuroimaging biomarkers are total lesion volume and the number of new and enhancing lesions. These biomarkers are essential, but do not capture the recovery process of lesions, which may be important in understanding the efficacy of MS treatments. The partial or complete recovery of lesions may depend both on the ability of the brain to heal and on external factors, such as treatment or environmental and behavioral exposures. In this presentation, I will present the methods for developing a lesion recovery biomarker: image intensity normalization, lesion identification or segmentation, longitudinal co-registration of lesions, and the analysis of longitudinal intensities over time. In addition I will relate the lesion biomarker to clinical information, such as the use of steroids and disease-modifying treatment and will discuss the challenges in modeling spatial correlation within this data.