Triple dose of gadolinium-DTPA increases the sensitivity of spinal cord MRI in detecting enhancing lesions in multiple sclerosis.

We compared the sensitivity of single and triple dose Gd-DTPA magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in detecting enhancing lesions in the spinal cord of 13 patients with multiple sclerosis (MS). We detected two enhancing lesions in two of 13 (15%) patients when the single dose of Gd-DTPA was used and 12 lesions in five of 13 (38%) patients when the triple dose of Gd-DTPA was used. These results suggest that: (1) the use of triple dose increases the sensitivity of spinal cord MRI when studying relapsing-remitting or secondary progressive MS patients, (2) triple dose Gd-DTPA enhanced of the spinal cord MRI might be useful in monitoring disease activity in patients with MS.