The pathology of Multiple Sclerosis includes studying the result of scarring within the central nervous system. Recording the techniques used in the pathology of MS has lead to extensive reports from which the MS community has greatly benefitted from. Not only is this data useful to those with Multiple Sclerosis, but also to friends, family, and caregivers of people with MS.
This disease is associated with the demyelination that occurs in the brain and spinal cord. The inflammation caused by the demyelination is the reason behind the existence of more than 50 symptoms patients can experience. White blood cells create the inflamed sheath around nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord, which is in turn, makes the cell lose the ability to be more efficient when transmitting electrical impulses. As the scarring on cells continues, signals become more and more faint. Eventually an individual with MS can experience a severe loss of mobility and often must resort to using a walker or wheelchair to get from one place to another.
Jean-Martin Charcot described MS first in 1868 and it has since been referred to as an autoimmune disease of the central nervous system. An individual can seem perfectly healthy one day and have a sudden array of symptoms the next. This cycle can go on for days, months, or years. The lull between relapses of symptoms is when the disease seems to go into remission. However, as MS progresses, the length of remission tends to shorten. The good news is an individual has the ability to continue living a long and healthy life with MS, thanks to the treatments available today.
Criteria behind the Diagnosis of MS
Doctors use a list of criteria in the early diagnosis of Multiple Sclerosis. There are always people that do not fit into one of the criteria listed, but this doesn’t happen very often. First, the age at which MS first emerges can be anywhere between the ages of 20 and 50. Second, the signs and symptoms must have something to do with the spinal cord or the brain affected by the disease. An MRI must be taken of the brain and spinal cord to check for lesions. Another criterion in the list is the presence of two or more episodes in which symptoms lasted for a period of 24 hours; no less. Each episode must also be a month apart from the previous one. Medical Review is expected to produce objective evidence that there is a real disease attacking the spinal cord or brain. Finally in the list of criteria, there can be no other explanation for the symptoms manifested.
The pathology of Multiple Sclerosis has been going strong for decades and hopefully the pathology of MS will bring about a way of eradicating this disease forever.
