Prevalence of multiple sclerosis in the province of Teruel, Spain

There have been few reports about the frequency of multiple sclerosis (MS) in Spain. We undertook a prevalence study in the province of Teruel, which is served by two hospitals as referral centres for a population of 143,680. We found a total of 46 patients who fulfilled Poser's criteria for cl...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of neurology 1997-03, Vol.244 (3), p.182-185
Main Authors: MODREGO PARDO, P. J, PINA LATORRE, M. A, LOPEZ, A, ERREA, J. M
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescent
Adult
Age of Onset
Animals
Biological and medical sciences
Cats
Female
Humans
Male
Medical sciences
Middle Aged
Multiple Sclerosis - epidemiology
Multiple sclerosis and variants. Guillain barré syndrome and other inflammatory polyneuropathies. Leukoencephalitis
Neurology
Prevalence
Spain - epidemiology
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Summary:There have been few reports about the frequency of multiple sclerosis (MS) in Spain. We undertook a prevalence study in the province of Teruel, which is served by two hospitals as referral centres for a population of 143,680. We found a total of 46 patients who fulfilled Poser's criteria for clinically definite or probable MS with a prevalence rate of 32/100,000 [95% confidence interval (CI): 22.8-41.3]. The prevalence rates for males and females were 23.5 (95% CI: 12.3-34.7) and 40.6 (95% CI: 25.8-55.4) respectively. We found an incidence rate of 2.2/year per 100,000 in the last 5 years. The sex ratio (females/males) was 1.7. The mean age on prevalence day was 40.6 years (range: 15-76). The clinical course was relapsing-remitting in 82% of patients, progressive in 9% and secondary progressive in the other 9%. The mean EDSS score was 3.73 (range: 1-8.5). Our results confirm the hypothesis that Spain is an area at high risk for MS.
ISSN:0340-5354
1432-1459
DOI:10.1007/s004150050070