A CLINICAL AND LABORATORY STUDY OF BENIGN MULTIPLE-SCLEROSIS

  • 1 January 1986
    • journal article
    • research article
    • Vol. 58  (225) , 69-80
Abstract
In a hospital-based study of 400 patients with multiple sclerosis (MS), 42 percent of patients who had had MS for 10 years or more had benign disease. Early age of onset and a long first remission were significantly associated with a good prognosis. There was a suggestion that initial presentation with paraesthesiae and possibly optic neuritis were associated with a benign prognosis, but the only significant finding was the association between limb weakness and a poor outcome (p < 0.05). Fewer patients with benign disease had a progressive element to their disease than those in the more disabled group (p < 0.001). The only laboratory test which was associated with a benign prognosis was the absence of CSF myelin basic protein in remission. Abnormalities of visual evoked responses, CSF IgG and peripheral blood T lymphocytes appeared to have no value in assessing prognosis in the patients studied.

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