MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr Patrick Freund Spinal Cord Injury Center Balgrist University Hospital Zurich, University of Zurich Forchstrasse 380 8008 Zurich, Switzerland MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study? Dr. Freund: Novel interventions targeting acute spinal cord injury (SCI) have entered clinical trials, but neuroimaging biomarkers reflecting structural changes within the central nervous system are still awaited. In chronic SCI, neuroimaging provided evidence of structural changes at spinal cord and brain level that could be related to disability. However, the pattern and time course of these structural changes and their potential to predict clinical outcomes is uncertain. In a prospective longitudinal study, thirteen patients with acute traumatic SCI were assessed clinically and by longitudinal MRI (within five weeks of injury, after two, six and twelve months) and were compared to eighteen healthy controls. Cross-sectional cord area, cranial white matter (CST) and grey matter (cortex) volume decrease was evident at baseline and progressed over twelve months. Multi-parametric mapping of myelin sensitive magnetization transfer (MT) and longitudinal relaxation rate (R1) was reduced both within and beyond the areas of atrophic changes. Better neurological and functional outcomes were associated with less atrophic changes of the CST in both cord and brain. (more…)