“Earlier diagnosis and treatment for patients with multiple sclerosis today”

2023-07-10 10:28:36

In Italy there are about 133,000 people who suffer from multiple sclerosis or plaques, a chronic autoimmune neurodegenerative disease, 85% of cases have a form of relapses and remission. For these patients, research has made many steps forward. “The most significant advances have been the ability to get disease detection earlier. Suffice it to say that currently, with the new diagnostic criteria, an average of three months elapse between the onset of MS and the moment of diagnosis. All this gives us the possibility to prescribe therapies in a timely manner. We are well aware that only 2/3 years of difference in the use of the same drug leads to a very different long-term evolution of the pathology. Among the advances in research, we should also mention the enormous amount of drugs we have available”. This was stated by Massimo Filippi, director of the Neurological Unit of the Neurophysiology Service and Neurorehabilitation Unit of the Irccs San Raffaele Milano, of the Italian Society of Neurology (Sin), in the tenth episode of the monthly column ‘Protect your brain, entrust yourself to the neurologist’, dedicated to neurological diseases. The project, born from the collaboration between Sin and time.news, aims to increase knowledge on neurological pathologies and on the figure of the neurologist, but also and above all to sensitize the population to rely on the care of this specialist when they appear the first symptoms.

Multiple sclerosis, which mainly affects women, generally manifests itself with visual disturbances, such as sudden loss of vision even in one eye, doubling and uncontrollable eye movements, disturbances in skin sensitivity and touch in the legs, arms, trunk or face, physical and mental fatigue even at rest, decreased muscle strength. All associated with burning and pain. These symptoms – according to the experts of Sin – can occur individually or together, even the intensity and their duration can vary considerably depending on the form of multiple sclerosis from which one suffers.

The reason why multiple sclerosis affects more women than men is explained by Filippi himself, who is also director of the School of Specialization in Neurology at the Vita-Salute San Raffaele University: “it is an autoimmune disease and like all pathologies autoimmune affects in particular the female sex, with a ratio of 2-3 to 1 in favor of women”. Finally, if it is a transmissible disease, the neurologist clarifies: “Although it has a genetic predisposition component and there is some additional risk for first-degree relatives of patients with MS, multiple sclerosis is not a transmissible disease” .