Subtle signs of multiple sclerosis may appear years before the start

For this research, experts wanted to know more about the Prodrome phase which can occur in MS, in particular by examining data even earlier than what was studied previously.

The study was conducted in British Columbia, Canada, and researchers used insurance data. They examined the visits to the hospital and the doctors. They used the MS clinical database of British Columbia to learn when participants first had SEP symptoms. Researchers also had access to data on completed prescriptions and population data.

The researchers were able to examine the data of 2,038 participants with MP, as well as a paired cohort of 10,182 participants who had no SEP.

After examining the doctor’s visit rates each year during the 25th anniversary preceding the start of the MS, the researchers perfected the previous 15 years. It was when changes in health care visits started.

During the 15 years preceding the start of the MS, the researchers identified more visits to the SEP participants for poorly defined signs and symptoms.

During the 14 years preceding the start of MS, the researchers identified an increase in visits to the doctor, visits to the doctor related to mental health and visits related to injuries. The elevation of mental health visits was important during most of the 14 years before the start of MS, except the years 7, 5 and 4. Overall, mental health visits increased by 76%.

Twelve years before the start of MS, he began to increase psychiatric visits, and this remained significant, except in the years 6 to 8, and the 4th year before the start of the MS. Overall, the increase in psychiatric consultations was 159%.

Ophthalmology visits increased 9 years before the start of MS, except in the years 6 and 2, with the highest increase of the year just before the start of MS.

During the 8 years preceding the MS, the SP continued to be raised before the start of the SP, except in the years 7 and 5. The largest tip was of the year just before the start of the SM.

Visits to musculoskeleton problems increased in the five years before the start of MS.

In the fourth year and in the year preceding the start of MS, there was also an increase in visits to the conditions of the nervous system, with a greater increase of the year before the start of MS.

Emergency visits were larger 5 years before the start of MS, radiology increased 3 years earlier, and internal medicine and neurosurgery increased a year earlier.

Many increases in healthcare visits culminated during the year just before the start of MS. For example, visits to the doctor and visits to injuries, poorly defined signs and symptoms, sensory-organic concerns and musculoskeletal problems culminated during the year preceding the start of MS.

Other types of visits have been affected over the specific years. For example, endocrine visits increased in 9th year before the start of MS. At the same time, visits related to pregnancy and childbirth decreased to a significant level in years 2 and 5.

Certain conditions also had separate increases before the start of MS. For example, the researchers observed an increase in anxiety and depression in the years 4, 3 and 2. In the 2 years preceding the start of MS, there was an increase in problems such as dizziness and dizziness.

During the year preceding the start of MS, there was an increase in migraines and specific eye problems, such as retinal detachment.

These data support the idea that MS can start much earlier than experts before did not think so and indicate the need for more research. The authors suggest that psychiatric and mental health problems can be early characteristics of the SEP Prodrome phase, as these concerns have started years before the increase in visits related to the nervous system.

Although this research has enabled in -depth follow -up, there are still limits. First of all, researchers did not have data on certain clinical information details. Instead, they had information on the reasons why participants looked for health services. Second, there is a certain risk of classification or poor coding based on the data used by researchers.

There are also challenges to determine the appearance of SEP symptoms, and researchers note that this “can be influenced by recall biases and challenges with medical history.” Some participants had a request for a demyelinating event or SEP before the date designated as the “date of appearance of SP symptoms”.

There may be cases of MS that doctors could have diagnosed earlier. It is also possible that participants in the paired cohort had the MS, despite proofs against this.

These data focused on people with British Columbia, Canada and the majority of SEP participants were women, which limited generalized.

In addition, researchers did not collect data on race or ethnicity, so more data specifying that this could be useful. They only corrected certain factors of statistical analysis, which could have had an impact on the results.

Burcu Zeydan, MD, deputy professor of neurology at Mayo Clinic, who was not involved in this research, noted the following warnings Medical news today:

“We note that health care visits in the” pre-MS diagnosis “period are mainly for rather non-specific and / or common causes such as headaches, fatigue and mental health problems. Given that most of these people will never develop MS, the identification of individuals in a possible sep prodrome includes the risk of diagnosis and over -to -sink and overdication for the possibilities of condemnation for innumerable distress for individuals for individuals and families. of MS by clinicians, who is supported by the rise of visits to ophthalmology and neurology in this study as indicated by the authors.

Research implies that MS begins earlier and leans in deeper questions about what can cause the condition. The professor of author of the study Helen Tremlett, PHD, at the Faculty of Medicine (Neurology) of the University of British Columbia, in Canada, explained to Mnt what:

“SEP can start earlier than we thought before, and this is actually really important when we think of what is causing the MS … Our results suggest that we have to look back much further than we do, perhaps currently, to think that something could lead to MS, whereas, in fact, the disease has already started … There is a potential here in the future, not currently, to recognize and perhaps you can diagnose and perhaps you can diagnose and may not know how to recognize and perhaps you can diagnose and may not manage the SM Currently do so, with the point of view of the intention to resolve gradually or prevent or prevent or prevent the disease. ”.

Zeydan noted that “the use of sep prodrome observations (researchers) should aim to develop risk models at the individual level, perhaps a rating system to reliably identify individuals who are at high risk of developing MS”.

“Biomarkers (blood and imaging) would be the key to this effort,” she told us. “Perhaps age and gender differences and tools such as AI can help MS fine risk prediction models,” said Zeydan.

“With a future panel of potential multimodal biomarkers, if people at high risk can be effectively identified in MS prodrome, methods of screening individualized diseases can be implemented in MS care for these high-risk individuals,” she concluded.