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Brain Atrophy Essay

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Apart from demyelination, neuronal pathology is largely responsible for brain atrophy. Now a days , cortical lesions and brain atrophy have emerged as new pathological markers of MS Progression. GM damage was first reported by Sander in 19th century . About 26% lesions are found in cortical and subcortical GM. In a study by Dalton et al, no WM loss and increasing GM loss was seen in patients with developing MS over 3 years following a CIS. The immunohistochemical staining techniques differentiates 4 major categories of cortical lesions: 1) lesion involves deeper layer of GM and adjacent WM (mixed lesions), 2) intra cortical lesions, and 3) extend from pial surface into cortex, 4) subpial lesions. GM atrophy is not distributed homogeneously, temporal and frontal cortices are affected predominately.8 With respect to WM lesions, Iinflammation is less prominent and BBB is not destroyed in GM lesion, contrast to WM lesions.4, 8 Some studies found signs of inflammation on post-mortems which include …show more content…

Specifically, nitric oxide has been identified contributing to neuroaxonal degeneration.1, 9, 10 Studies in the spinal cord and lateral geniculate nucleus in MS patients have shown a greater loss of small axons in comparison to larger ones.10 This is because smaller axons are more susceptible to inflammatory mediators like nitric

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