Values Of Apparent Diffusion Coefficients In Staging The Lesions Of Multiple Sclerosis

Objective: To explore the values of apparent diffusion coefficients（ADC） in staging the lesions of multiple sclerosis（MS） through analysing the differences of ADC values in different types of lesions.Methods: 37 lesions, identified in 29 patients with MS, were characterized by their enhancement pattern on contrast-enhanced T1-weighted MR images and whether they were changing in appearance, size or signal. The lesions were classified into four groups: homogeneously enhancing lesions（HELs）, ring-enhancing lesions（RELs）, active nonenhancing lesions（ANELs）, and inactive nonenhancing lesions（INELs）. The mean ADC values for each type of lesions were calculated and compared.Results: The ADC values for HELs, RELs, ANELs and INELs were separately（91.09±13.63）×10^-5·m²·s^-1,（105.66±9.92）×10^-5·m²·s^-1,（136.80±20.31）×10^-5·m²·s^-1 and（127.46±13.65）×10^-5·m²·s^-1. There were significant differences between the ADC values of any two groups in the four groups except the ADC values of ANELs and INELs.Conclusion: ADC values are valuable to differentiate each type of lesion, which can help stage the lesions of MS.