Heterogeneity of multiple sclerosis lesions in fast diffusional kurtosis imaging

Background Mean kurtosis (MK), one of the parameters derived from diffusion kurtosis imaging (DKI), has shown increased sensitivity to tissue microstructure damage in several neurological disorders. Methods Thirty-seven patients with relapsing-remitting MS and eleven healthy controls (HC) received brain imaging on a 3T MR scanner, including a fast DKI sequence. MK and mean diffusivity (MD) were measured in the white matter of HC, normal-appearing white matter (NAWM) of MS patients, contrast-enhancing lesions (CE-L), FLAIR lesions (FLAIR-L) and black holes (BH). Results Overall 1529 lesions were analyzed, including 30 CE-L, 832 FLAIR-L and 667 BH. Highest MK values were obtained in the white matter of HC (0.814 ± 0.129), followed by NAWM (0.724 ± 0.137), CE-L (0.619 ± 0.096), FLAIR-L (0.565 ± 0.123) and BH (0.549 ± 0.12). Lowest MD values were obtained in the white matter of HC (0.747 ± 0.068 10−3mm2/sec), followed by NAWM (0.808 ± 0.163 10−3mm2/sec), CE-L (0.853 ± 0.211 10−3mm2/sec), BH (0.957 ± 0.304 10−3mm2/sec) and FLAIR-L (0.976 ± 0.35 10−3mm2/sec). While MK differed significantly between CE-L and non-enhancing lesions, MD did not. Conclusion MK adds predictive value to differentiate between MS lesions and might provide further information about diffuse white matter injury and lesion microstructure.