Reduced signal intensity on MR images of thalamus and putamen in multiple sclerosis: increased iron content?

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Abstract
High-field-strength (1.5-T) MR imaging was used to evaluate 47 patients with definite multiple sclerosis and 42 neurologically normal control patients. Abnormal, multiple foci of increased signal intensity on T2-weighted images, most prominent in the periventricular white matter, were apparent in 43 of 47 MS patients and in two of 42 control patients. A previously undescribed finding of relatively decreased signal intensity most evident in the putamen and thalamus on T2-weighted images was seen in 25 of 42 MS patients and correlated with the degree of white-matter abnormality. In the normal control patients a prominently decreased signal intensity was noted in the globus pallidus, as compared with the putamen or thalamus, correlating closely with the distribution of ferric iron as determined in normal Perls'-stained autopsy brains. The decreased signal intensity (decreased T2) is due to ferritin, which causes local magnetic field inhomogeneities and is proportional to the square of the field strength. The...