Contributing clinical MRI scans to multi-centre collaboration
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Contributing clinical MRI scans to multi-centre collaboration
IRAS ID
123585
Contact name
Pamela Shaw
Contact email
Research summary
Research Summary
When patients are diagnosed with motor neuron disease in our hospital, they will have detailed MRI scans of the brain and upper spinal cord to make sure that no other conditions could be mimicking motor neuron disease. This is a standard part of their normal clinical care. We would like to ask permission from each person to send their scans, in anonymised form, to neurologist colleagues in Europe (the NiSALS consortium) who are organising a large database of scans of patients with motor neuron disease from many different countries. The aim is to find similarities in scan appearances from this big group which could help make the diagnosis earlier, monitor disease progression, and help predict the course of the disease. In order for the protocol to be the same for all scans and across centres, it may require a few minutes longer in the scanner. In addition, we would like to send anonymised clinical data (for example, MRC power scores, type of disease onset) from the time of scan acquisition.Summary of Results
The scans were used to study patterns of degeneration in people living with motor neuron disease. We studied whether the damage to the motor nerves started in the brain, and progressed down, or in the peripheral nerves supplying the muscles and progressed up towards the brain. We extracted measures of the thickness of primary motor cortex, the grey matter in the brain concerned with movement, the integrity of the motor tracts conveying information to the spinal cord, and the diameter of the spinal cord in the neck. Thinner motor cortex, disrupted motor tract integrity and loss of spinal cord volume were considered markers of damage at each level. We established a novel method of analysing these varied measures of damage in a common domain for each person. In people living with MND, we found evidence of a step-change at a level between brain and spinal cord, and further down in the spinal cord. This provided some evidence that the damage to the motor system started from the brain and progressed down towards the peripheral nerves in this group. This result contributes towards understanding patterns of damage in MND.REC name
Yorkshire & The Humber - Sheffield Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
13/YH/0307
Date of REC Opinion
4 Sep 2013
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion