MRI of the intracranial corticospinal tracts in amyotrophic and primary lateral sclerosis

Our aim was to investigate the corticospinal tracts (CST) in motor neurone disease, using MRI, and to correlate findings with clinical data. We studied 31 patients with amyotrophic (ALS) and eight with primary lateral sclerosis (PLS). The signal from the CST was classified into four grades on T2-weighted images, and compared to T2-weighted images of 37 age-matched control subjects. No abnormalities were seen in the CST on T1-weighted images and were rarely evident on proton-density weighting. Variable high signal in the CST was found on T2-weighted images in 35 patients, and in 29 control subjects. Our grades 0 and 1 were more frequent in control subjects, grades 2 and 3 more frequent in patients. We found no correlation between the high signal and clinical data, including the duration of the illness. We therefore conclude that this technique is neither sensitive nor specific except in grade 3 which is quite specific for ALS. In half the patients we found atrophy of the superior parietal gyrus, which merits further study.

Authors and Affiliations

1. Department of Neuroradiology, Hôpital de la Timone, Boulevard Jean Moulin, F-13385 Marseille Cedex 5, France, Tel.: + 33-4-91 38 65 28, Fax: 33-4-91 38 68 33, , , , , , FR

   P. Peretti-Viton, H. Brunel, C. Daniel, B. Salazard & G. Salamon

2. Department of Neurology and Neuromuscular diseases, Hôpital de la Timone, Marseille, France, , , , , , FR

   J. P. Azulay, S. Trefouret, J. Pouget & G. Serratrice

3. Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Hôpital de la Timone, Marseille, France, , , , , , FR

   J. M. Viton

4. Medical Informatics Department, Hôpital Nord, Marseille, France, , , , , , FR

   A. Flori

Received: 10 August 1998 Accepted: 23 February 1999

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