'Benign' MS patients should be warned, study says
Updated Tue. Feb. 13 2007 8:19 AM ET
Canadian Press
TORONTO -- People who have had multiple sclerosis for a decade with few disabling symptoms are often told they have a mild form of the disease and will continue to do well. But a Canadian study has found that so-called "benign MS" doesn't always remain benign.
In fact, researchers found that half of those patients said to have benign MS 10 years after initial diagnosis saw their disease actually progress over the next decade, including 20 per cent who ended up needing a cane or other assistive device to walk.
Study co-author Dr. Virginia Devonshire, head of the University of British Columbia Hospital MS Clinic, said she and her fellow researchers were somewhat surprised at the finding, which was based on analysis of a detailed database of 169 benign MS patients followed over 20 years.
"We really did think that we would be able to say that there was a group of people who had certain symptoms from the beginning who did well for a period of time, that they were always going to do well, that you could feel comfortable telling them that," Devonshire said Monday from Vancouver.
"Unfortunately, that's not the case."
"Nobody wants to find out 10 years later that they've got disability and impairment. And . . . we can't always tell somebody because they have certain symptoms at the beginning or because they've gone so long without disability that they're always going to go without disability, and therefore don't need treatment early on."
Devonshire said the study - published in Tuesday's issue of the journal Neurology - suggests that patients who are told they have benign MS still must be regularly assessed to see if subtle neurological changes that might herald later progression of the disease could be picked up early.
Multiple sclerosis is an auto-immune disease that attacks the protective covering - called myelin - of the brain and spinal cord, causing inflammation and often destroying the myelin in patches. An estimated 55,000 to 75,000 Canadians have the disease, 75 per cent of them women. Canada has one of the highest prevalence rates of MS in the world.
About 10 to 15 per cent of cases are considered benign, said Marianne Chilco, a spokeswoman for the Multiple Sclerosis Society of Canada.
Symptoms include numbness or tingling in the hands and feet, feeling off-balance, clumsiness and visual and cognitive problems. Most patients experience what's known as relapsing and remitting MS, in which they will have an attack of symptoms that will last days to weeks. "Then the patient gets better, fully or partially," Devonshire said.
Or, the patient seems to get better, at least on the surface.
"In between attacks, during remission - which is not a true remission - there are no new symptoms, but in fact if we watch an MRI in this 'remission' phase, we see new inflammation coming and going all the time," she said. (MRIs can pick up lesions on brain and spinal tissue.)
During the first 10 years, attacks come and go, the person recovers and there seems to be little residual disability, she explained. "But we think between attacks, there are little bits of damage occurring in the brain and spinal cord all the time. And after 15, 20 years, all those bits of damage add up."
"It's like the tip of the iceberg: suddenly, then, you see the disability and impairment."
Devonshire said doctors don't know whether benign MS patients would benefit from starting treatment with immune-modulating medications aimed at limiting neurological damage - drugs that many patients are loathe to begin because they are administered by injection and are expensive.
That's something only further study can determine, she said.
In an editorial accompanying the study, Dr. Sean Pittock said that if doctors had an effective, safe and inexpensive oral medication for MS patients, "few would argue against the 'treat-all' approach." However, disease-modulating agents (DMAs) are expensive and have side-effects that can cause skin reactions and flu-like symptoms, and their long-term effects are unknown, he noted.
"There are no data on the advisability of commencing DMA in MS patients who have experienced a favourable course over many years and lack clinical or radiologic (MRI) evidence of recent deterioration," writes Pittock of the department of neurology, laboratory medicine and pathology at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.
"A 'watchful waiting' approach with regular clinical and MRI monitoring before initiating treatment may be a preferable approach for some patients."
Devonshire and the MS Society both urge patients who have been told their disease is benign to maintain regular contact with their MS centre and neurologist for ongoing evaluation of their condition.
"But I think the bigger message is for physicians," Devonshire said. "I think physicians have to be cautious about telling people they have benign MS. I think it's reasonable to say: 'You're doing well now, but we can't predict the future and we must consider all the options.' "
According to the reporter who wrote this article, I'm glad to hear that they have solved the mystery of MS and have proven that it is indeed an autoimmune disease!! They have done something that nobody else has been able to accomplish in 50 years.Multiple sclerosis is an auto-immune disease that attacks the protective covering - called myelin - of the brain and spinal cord, causing inflammation and often destroying the myelin in patches.
In the world of medicine, you have to be able to prove a theory by offering scientific facts that can be duplicated by others. Your work has to be peer reviewed as well and the scientists involved must be able to defend their work.What do you require as proof?
The fact that one's immune system reacts to inflammation around myelin does NOT mean the particular affliction is "an autoimmune disease". The immune system is simply reacting to this inflammation and is doing something it is designed to do....go after whatever is causing the damage. In the case of MS, the immune system ends up causing even more problems in its attempt to "fix" the situation.Seriously, I don't know if it's been known for some time and I've only discovered it recently or if it's actually been discovered recently that EVERYONE has autoreactive T cells. This is the kind of thing which inarguably could/should take the wind out of the "MS is not autoimmune" camp because it is something which can be inarguably proven.
I'm afraid I just can't agree with your logic on this. Again,the immune system of a MS patient is doing exactly what it was designed to do...detect and go after the problem...in the case of MS patients, this is inflammation around the myelin. Having MS doesn't, in my opinion, doesn't make any difference at all in this mechanism.If EVERYONE, not just people with MS, have autoreactive T cells, that means that self reactivity (autoimmunity) is the normal human state and NOT regulating those autoreactive T cells is the dysfunction known as MS. In other words, MS is/would be definately autoimmune because everyone is autoimmune and people with MS don't regulate their autoimmunity correctly.
LOL....what would ThisIsMs be without differences of opinion? The big difference here is that most times you can express these differences and not have to worry about someone coming back and making personal attacks on you.Lyon wrote:No, seriously Harry, if you want to sneak away from this "not autoimmune" thing graciously we can still be buddies and I'll scour the earth in order to find something else we can argue about.
Come to think of it, how do you say potato and tomato?
Great convertible wx. We usually try to get to Port Huron once a year and do a little shopping...especially with the Canadian dollar worth about .94 US these days. I can remember growing up in Windsor and heading across the river to Detroit often when the CA $ was about .05 more than its US counterpart.I'm going to be heading towards your neck of the woods later today. My 15 year old son found a Camaro he likes near Port Huron/Sarnia and considering it's supposed to be sunny and 90 (Farenheit) it seems like a good day to take a ride in the convertible.
