Can brain volume help understand the progression of MS in children?

About the project

Around 5% of people with MS are diagnosed before the age of 18. The condition presents different challenges for children, especially as they may experience a reduction in their brain volume at a time when their brain should be growing. This may impact the rate and severity of disability that children develop as a result of their MS.

At the moment, measures of brain volume aren’t taken as standard or used as a measure of how MS is progressing.

This project will use MRI to analyse brain volume in children with MS to see if it can predict the disability progression and symptoms of MS. The researchers will also look at a particular type of protein in the blood, called neurofilaments, which might also indicate damage to the nerves.

How will it help people with MS?

Clinical assessments of MS, like your ability to walk or put pegs into holes, don’t always show the extent of changes that might be happening your brain - especially in children with MS.

This project hopes to develop new ways of measuring the progression of children’s MS to better understand and predict disability progression. Importantly, these could act as better measurement to test if treatments are working or not.

The difference you can make

Improving our understanding of MS in children will help us move forward towards a better future for everyone with MS.