Multiple Sclerosis (redirected from Action for Research into Multiple Sclerosis)

multiple sclerosis (MS), chronic, slowly progressive autoimmune disease in which the body's immune system attacks the protective myelin sheaths that surround the nerve cells of the brain and spinal cord (a process called demyelination), resulting in damaged areas that are unable to transmit nerve impulses. The disease also gradually damages the nerves themselves. There are elevated numbers of lymphocytes in the cerebral spinal fluid and of T cells in the blood (see immunity).

The onset of MS is usually at age 20 to 40 years, and its many symptoms affect almost every system of the body. There may be visual difficulties, emotional disturbances, speech disorders, convulsions, paralysis or numbness of various regions of the body, bladder disturbances, and muscular weakness. The course of the disease varies greatly from person to person. In some patients, the symptoms remit and return, sometimes at frequent intervals and sometimes after several years. In others the disease progresses steadily.

There is a genetic predisposition to MS, and environmental factors also seem to play some role. The disease is more common in temperate climates (1:2,000) than in the tropics (1:10,000).

There is no cure for MS, but a number of drugs—the first of which became available in the 1990s—can slow its underlying progress and reduce the frequency of attacks. These are Avonex, Rebif, and Betaseron, forms of beta interferon (a synthetic version of a natural substance produced by the immune system); Copaxone (glatiramer acetate); and Tysabri (natalizumab).

Bibliography

See R. Rubinstein, Take It Or Leave It: Aspects of Being Ill (1989); U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services, Warren Grant Magnuson Clinical Center, Multiple Sclerosis (1990).

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multiple sclerosis

Disease of the brain and spinal cord in which gradual, patchy destruction of the myelin sheath of nerve fibres causes interruption or disordered transmission of nerve impulses. Its early symptoms may include limb weakness or trembling, visual problems, sensory disturbances, unsteady walking, and defective bladder control, which come and go irregularly. Attacks grow more severe, and some symptoms become permanent, sometimes with eventual complete paralysis. Average survival from onset is about 25 years, but a rare acute form progresses over months. The cause remains uncertain and treatment unsatisfactory. Corticosteroids may ease symptoms. MS may be due to a delayed immune response that attacks the myelin sheaths; suggested causes include various common viruses. Dietary causes have also been suggested.

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multiple sclerosis

a chronic progressive disease of the central nervous system characterized by loss of some of the myelin sheath surrounding certain nerve fibres and resulting in speech and visual disorders, tremor, muscular incoordination, partial paralysis, etc.

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multiple sclerosis [′məl·tə·pəl sklə′rō·səs]

(medicine)

A degenerative disease of the nervous system of unknown cause in which there is demyelination followed by gliosis.

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Multiple Sclerosis 

a chronic progressive disease of man, characterized by the development of foci of demyelination in the central and peripheral nervous systems; a neurological disease. The etiology is not clear; according to the infectious allergic theory, an infectious (viral or bacterial) agent initiates a prolonged autoimmune process.

In multiple sclerosis, sclerotic patches of varying sizes form in the matter of the brain and spinal cord. Microscopic examination reveals demyelination and proliferation of glia in these patches. The disease usually develops at an early age. In 1868, J. M. Charcot described the classic triad of symptoms: nystagmus, intention tremor (irregular oscillations of the eyes occurring when the patient moves), and staccato speech. Also characteristic are visual disturbances (changes in the fields of color perception, changes in acuteness of vision, and double vision); disturbances of the vestibular apparatus (dizziness); impairment of coordination; changes in the pyramidal system (spastic paresis of the lower extremities, pathologic Babinski’s and Ros-solimo’s reflexes, and loss of abdominal reflexes); disturbances in vibration sensitivity; and changes in the cerebrospinal fluid. The course of the disease is slow, and there are usually recurrent exacerbations; in time, the periods of remission become shorter and the neurological symptoms progress.

Multiple sclerosis is treated with desensitizing agents, immunosuppressants (chloroquine phosphate, glucocorticoids, cyclophosphamide, and histaglobin), transfusions of blood and blood substitutes, and drugs that normalize metabolism, vitamin balance, and neurohumoral influences (ATP, B-complex vitamins, glutamic acid, neostigmine methyl sulfate, and diethazine). Other methods of treatment include physiotherapy (electric sleep, applications of ozokerite, inductothermy), exercise therapy, and bioelectric stimulation of muscles and coordination of movements. Research is being conducted on methods of surgical treatment of multiple sclerosis.

REFERENCES

Demieliniziruiushchie zabolevaniia nervnoi sistemy v eksperimente i klinike. Minsk, 1970.
Panov, A. G., and A. P. Zinchenko. Diagnostika rasseiannogo skleroza i entsefalomielita. [Leningrad] 1970.
Pentsik, A. S. Rasseiannyi skleroz. Riga, 1970.

V. B. GEL’FAND