Clinically isolated syndromes (CIS), such as optic neuritis, brainstem or spinal cord syndromes are frequently the first clinical presentations of multiple sclerosis. However, not all CIS patients develop multiple sclerosis and in those who do, disability is highly variable. In previous follow-up studies, brain lesions on T2-weighted MRI are associated with increased risk of multiple sclerosis ...

OBJECTIVE To determine the incidence and prevalence of multiple sclerosis in the Lothian and Border Health Board Regions of south east Scotland. METHODS Incidence study: all patients were identified in whom a diagnosis of Poser category probable or definite multiple sclerosis was made by a neurologist between 1992 and 1995. Prevalence study: all patients known to have multiple sclerosis who w...

We compared three methods of analysis for IgG in cerebrospinal fluid, using samples from 158 patients with clinically suspected multiple sclerosis and from 200 neurological controls. The tests were: search for oligoclonal bands, calculation of rate of synthesis of IgG in the cerebrospinal fluid, and determination of the IgG/albumin ratio. Paired cerebrospinal fluid and serum samples were collec...

background: intravenous immunoglobulin (ivig) is an established treatment of immune mediated demyelinating neuropathy including guillain-barré syndrome and chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy. recent trials suggest its efficacy in treating relapsing- remitting multiple sclerosis. ivig exerts a number of effects, which may be beneficial in treating multiple sclerosis (ms): reductio...

Eight patients are described who presented with hemiparesis which involved the face in seven. Six of the eight subsequently developed clinically definite multiple sclerosis and in the remaining two patients multiple sclerosis was the likely diagnosis. Magnetic resonance imaging gave useful information about the site of the lesions responsible for the presenting syndrome and provided additional ...

One hundred and one of 146 patients presenting with isolated idiopathic optic neuritis, previously reviewed in 1978, were reassessed clinically, and retyped for HLA antigens and Factor B alleles, after a mean follow-up of 11.6 years. Fifty eight patients (57%) had developed multiple sclerosis at the time of reassessment in the present study, of whom 51 (88%) had clinically definite disease. Thi...

BACKGROUND Most patients with multiple sclerosis initially present with a clinically isolated syndrome. Despite the fact that clinically definite multiple sclerosis will develop in up to 80 percent of these patients, the course of the disease is unpredictable at its onset and requires long-term observation or repeated magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). We investigated whether the presence of ser...