فهرست نشریات علمی دسترسی آزاد ایران

Background: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is one of the most common autoimmune disorders of the central nervous system. In spite of various imaging modalities, the definitive diagnosis of MS remains challenging. Objectives: This study was designed to evaluate the usefulness of diffusion weighted imaging (DWI) in the diagnosis of acute MS attack and to compare its results with contrast enhanced MRI (CE-MRI). Results: CE-MRI yielded positive results for 61 (87%) patients and DWI yielded positive for 53 (76%) patients. In fifty patients (71.42%), both tests were positive and in six cases (8.57%), both were negative. The test results of three patients turned out to be positive in DWI, while they tested negative in CE-MRI. There was no significant relationship between the results of CE-MRI as well as DWI and the time of imaging from the onset of symptoms. Conclusion: These data indicate that while CE-MRI will depict more positive results, there are cases in which DWI will show a positive result while CE-MRI is negative. We suggest that the combination of these two imaging modalities might yield more positive results in diagnosing acute MS attack giving rise to a more accurate diagnosis.