Canadian doctors have found evidence that the first signs of problems with the body and nervous system show up in a lot of people with multiple sclerosis 15 years before they get any obvious symptoms of brain disease. This was reported by the University of British Columbia (UBC) press office.
"Multiple sclerosis is extremely difficult to diagnose because many of the early signs of its development, including fatigue, headaches, and other pain sensations, are very common and often accompany a number of other diseases. Our observations have dramatically shifted the timing of these early signs of multiple sclerosis, paving the way for early diagnosis and intervention," said UBC professor Helen Tremlett, whose words are quoted by the university's press service.
Doctors made this discovery while conducting long-term health observations of 2,000 people with multiple sclerosis living in Canada, TASS reports. The first signs of multiple sclerosis were detected in their thirties and forties, but many patients complained of health problems characteristic of people with this disease long before the detection of demyelination lesions, areas with damaged “insulation” of brain neurons.
This observation prompted scientists to compare the histories of healthy Canadians and those with multiple sclerosis before the latter were officially diagnosed. To obtain this information, the researchers requested access to the medical records of patients and 10,000 healthy Canadians of similar age and gender, and then analyzed how often they visited doctors of different specialties.
This analysis showed that the first differences between healthy people and those with multiple sclerosis appear 15 years before diagnosis. People with this disease are 20% more likely to see a doctor with complaints of fatigue, pain, dizziness, depression, and other mental disorders. About ten years before diagnosis, they begin to complain 60% more often of eye pain and blurred vision, and three to five years before diagnosis, they begin to visit radiology departments 70% more often.
According to experts, these observations indicate an unusually long prodromal phase of multiple sclerosis development—the period when the disease is already progressing but the first clear signs of its development are not yet observed. Understanding this will enable the development of the first methods for the early diagnosis of multiple sclerosis and will also give scientists the opportunity to develop and test therapies aimed at slowing or preventing its development in the early stages of the disease.
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