This interesting study looked at the relationship between hemodynamic measurements and cognitive function in patients with clinically isolated syndrome (CIS) using dynamic susceptibility contrast MRI cerebral blood volume (CBV), cerebral blood flow and mean transit values in 20 cerebral regions of interest. 

The study included 40 CIS patients and the cognitive tests looked at short-term/working memory and passage learning. The researchers found that there was an inverse relationship between impaired scores on working and verbal memory and elevated CBV values in regions of the brain involved in memory including the left frontal and periventricular normal appearing white matter (NAWM), thalamus, right caudate and corpus callosum. 

It is thought that the hemodynamic changes seen in CIS is likely to indicate inflammation and the cognitive dysfunction seen in this study may be due to widespread inflammation in the brain seen in early MS.