Analysis of clinical features and prognosis of multiple sclerosis

Objective: To analyse the clinical features and prognosis of multiple sclerosis (MS). Methods: Clinical data of 117 patients with MS were analyzed retrospectively. The clinical and imaging characters in types of optico-spinal(OSMS) and conventional MS(CMS) were compared. Results: Among the 117 MS patients, 42 cases (35.9%) were OSMS. 75 cases(64.1%) were CMS. About the clinical manifertation, the incedence of extremital weakness(88.1%), anesthesia (85.7%), abnormal sensation (57.1%), vision (76.2%), urination disorder (73.8%) in OSMS patients were significantly higher than those in CMS patients (70.7% 56.0%, 20.0% 45.3% and 26.7%) (all P < 0.05); the incedence of ataxia(7.1%), diplopia(0) and frame(0) were remarkable less than those in CMS patients(42.7%, 10.7% and 16.0%) (P < 0.05-0.01). The percentage of OSMS with large spinal cord lesion was significantly higher than that of CMS(94.1% vs 48.2% P < 0.01). No significantly difference had been found in the result of evoked potentials examination and test of cerebrospinal fluid between the groups CMS and OSMS. The score of EDSS in OSMS group (2.42 ± 0.90) was significantly higher than that in CMS group (1.50 ± 0.88 P < 0.05) at 5 years after onset of MS. At the first year and third year after onset of MS, the frequents of annual mean relapse in relapse-remitting OSMS 1.92 ± 1.05) times, (1.26 ± 0.51) times were significantly higher than those in relapse-remitting CMS [(1.05 ± 1.08) times, (0.39 ± 0.60) times (all P < 0.01). Conclusions: There is a higher rate of OSMS than that of west country in this data. The most frequent symptoms in MS patients are extremital weakness, anesthesia and vision. Compared with CMS, there are more percentage of large spinal cord lesion, rapid progression of functional disability and relapsesmore frequently in OSMS. Which may indicate that as early as possible to intervention with immunomodulatory therapy for OSMS.