LAUSR

BACKGROUND The interplay between cortical surface thickness (CTh), subcortical volumes (SCV) and disability in patients with relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS) is still not clear. OBJECTIVE To examine the relationship between CTh, SCV, and disability and investigate differences in CTh, SCV and disability between African Americans (AA) and Caucasian Americans (CA). METHODS Sixty-five RRMS (33AA, 32 CA) participants underwent Expanded Disability Status Scale and Multiple Sclerosis Functional Composite (MSFC) assessments, including timed 25-foot walk (T25FW), nine-hole peg test (9HPT) on dominant (D) and non-dominant hand (ND) and paced auditory serial addition test (PASAT-3). Symbol digit modalities test (SDMT) was also administered. All participants underwent 3T brain MRI. CTh was measured in the Frontal (FA), Parietal (PA), Temporal (TA), Occipital (OA), Cingulate (CA), and Global (GA) cortical surface areas (CSA). SCV measurements included Thalamus (TV), Caudate (CV), Putamen (PV), Pallidum (PaV), Hippocampus (HV), Amygdala (AV), Accumbens (AcV), Brain Stem (BSV), and Deep Gray Matter Total Volume (DGMTV). A general linear model with multivariate analysis (MANOVA) was used to determine the differences between the two cohorts (SPSS vs 25). Spearman rank correlation analysis was performed to investigate the relationship between CTh and MSFC. RESULTS AA have significantly decreased FA, PA, TA, GA CTh compared to CA (p = 0.004, p = 0.018, p = 0.013, p = 0.015, respectively). SCV measurements were not significantly different. Only in CA, the MSFC measures correlate significantly with regional CSA CTh. In both races and in the entire group, T25FW correlates with TV, PV, AV, AcV and DGMTV (p < 0.05). Only in AA and the entire cohort, PASAT-3 correlates with TV and AcV(p = 0.041, p = 0.006, p = 0.006, p = 0.000 respectively). CONCLUSIONS Differences in CSA CTh reinforce the different disease pathobiology between AA and CA. Regional CTh may represent a useful biomarker related to multi-domain disability only in CA, while in AA DGM injury might be a more important contributor to disability. Longitudinal, large-scale studies are warranted to confirm our findings.