Distribution of multiple sclerosis lesions detected by brain magnetic resonance imaging in Erbil city

Background and objective: Many epidemiological studies and clinical manifestation studies of multiple sclerosis have been done in Iraq. Up to our knowledge, no such observational study to the radiological feature of the multiple sclerosis lesion has been done yet in Erbil in comparison to other worldwide studies. This study aimed to assess the distribution of multiple sclerosis lesions in brain regions detected by magnetic resonance imaging among Erbil population. Methods: This was a cross-sectional study conducted at the College of Medicine, Hawler Medical University, from April 2018 to July 2019. A review of magnetic resonance imaging scans of the brain of 120 patients was done. Special attention was directed toward identifying the variance in multiple sclerosis lesions distribution in the brain regions and their MR signal intensity characteristics. Results: Periventricular lesions were observed in more than 90% of the study sample. The next common was juxtacortical lesions (24.8%), followed by corpus callosum lesions (16.8 %), while brain stem lesions were the least observed proportions. No significant difference was detected in the distribution of multiple sclerosis lesions among ethnicities and genders, except for basal ganglia lesions, which were significantly more common in women (P = 0.016).The magnetic resonance imaging signal intensity of the lesion was significantly variable among disease duration. Conclusion: The T2 hyper intense lesions were most commonly seen in the periventricular region. Juxtacortical and corpus callosum lesions were also frequently observed. The proportions of the brain stem and cerebellum lesions appeared to be lower in comparison to previous studies. Keywords: Multiple Sclerosis; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Distribution; Lesion.