The ability to visualise multiple sclerosis lesions in vivo with magnetic resonance imaging suggests an important role in monitoring the course of the disease. In order to help the long-term assessment of prospective treatments, a semi-automated technique for measuring lesion volume has been developed to provide a quantitative index of disease progression. Results are presented from a preliminary study with a single patient and compared to measurements taken from lesion outlines traced by a neuroradiologist, two neurologists and a technician. The semi-automated technique achieved a precision of 6% compared to a range of 12-33% for the manual tracing method. It also reduced the human interaction time from at least 60 min to 15 min.