Diagnosis and disease modifying treatments in multiple sclerosis

Multiple sclerosis (MS) refers to scattered areas of hardening found on sectioning central nervous system tissue of affected people, usually after many years of illness. It rarely causes early death but is the commonest cause of neurological disability among young people. Overall results from contro...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Postgraduate medical journal 2005-09, Vol.81 (959), p.556-561
Main Author: Zajicek, J
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adjuvants, Immunologic - therapeutic use
Apoptosis
Biological and medical sciences
Blood-brain barrier
Brain research
central nervous system
CIS
clinically isolated syndrome
CNS
Diagnosis, Differential
Drug dosages
General aspects
Glatiramer Acetate
Humans
Inflammation
Interferon
interferon beta
Interferon-beta - therapeutic use
magnetic resonance imaging
Medical sciences
MRI
Multiple sclerosis
Multiple Sclerosis - diagnosis
Multiple Sclerosis - drug therapy
Multiple sclerosis and variants. Guillain barré syndrome and other inflammatory polyneuropathies. Leukoencephalitis
Neurology
NMR
Nuclear magnetic resonance
Peptides - therapeutic use
relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis
Review
Risk Assessment
RR-MS
Studies
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Summary:Multiple sclerosis (MS) refers to scattered areas of hardening found on sectioning central nervous system tissue of affected people, usually after many years of illness. It rarely causes early death but is the commonest cause of neurological disability among young people. Overall results from controlled trials over the past 50 years have been rather disappointing but the comparatively recent licensing of drugs such as interferon beta and glatiramer acetate has led to a reappraisal of many aspects of MS. There are now new diagnostic criteria, which encompass developments in magnetic resonance imaging. Older clinical methods of measuring disease impact are now being re-evaluated to facilitate clinical trials of the approximate 150 new products currently being developed as potential disease modifying agents. The success and failure of agents that should be effective on theoretical grounds, together with advances in neuropathology, have led to fundamental questions regarding our basic understanding of disease pathogenesis being re-addressed.
ISSN:0032-5473
1469-0756
DOI:10.1136/pgmj.2004.031294