Evaluating the central vein sign in paediatric-onset multiple sclerosis: A case series study
Vincenzo Daniele Boccia, Caterina Lapucci, Maria Cellerino, Francesco Tazza, Andrea Rossi, Simona Schiavi, Maria Margherita Mancardi, Matilde Inglese
Abstract
The central vein sign (CVS) has been proposed as a biomarker of multiple sclerosis (MS). In adult-onset MS (AOMS), 40%-threshold of CVS positive (+) lesions demonstrated high accuracy for MS diagnosis. However, CVS+ lesions' performance has not been characterized in paediatric-onset (POMS) yet. We compared the CVS contribution to MS diagnosis in 10 POMS and 12 disease-duration-matched AOMS patients. Three POMS patients did not meet the 40%-threshold, while all AOMS patients were correctly diagnosed as having MS. The high proportion of periventricular confluent lesions, excluded from the CVS assessment, seemed to impair CVS sensitivity in POMS diagnosis.