Multiple sclerosis

General characteristic of a disease

Multiple sclerosis is a serious progressing disease with the numerous centers of damages of the central nervous system.

There is a classification by type of a course of a disease. According to it distinguish malignant and high-quality forms of multiple sclerosis, and also a special kind of a disease – an opticomyelitis or Devik's disease.

The course of multiple sclerosis is considered high-quality if 15 years later from manifestation of the first symptoms of multiple sclerosis, the patient has no invalidism signs, despite the lack of specific treatment.

At a malignant form of a course of multiple sclerosis the disease is characterized by bystry progressing and can lead to a lethal outcome in 3-6 months.

Patients with multiple sclerosis of the most rare form – Devik's disease suffer from selective damage of optic nerves. The disease not always leads to a lethal outcome, however at it the blindness of one or both eyes promptly develops, and after it myelitis symptoms (an inflammation of a spinal cord) accrue.

Reasons of multiple sclerosis

Today the reliable reason of multiple sclerosis is not established. There is a hypothesis of a multifactor etiology of a disease. Her supporters refer cumulative action of genetic and external factors to the most probable causes of multiple sclerosis.

In favor of the genetic nature of a disease specifies the fact that multiple sclerosis most often occurs at people in certain regions of Earth, in particular, in Scotland, Denmark, the Scandinavian countries and among the white population of inhabitants there is USA.

External environment as one of the possible reasons of multiple sclerosis, is considered in connection with data on influence of internal causes on health of the person till the pubertal period. The risk to ache with multiple sclerosis decreases if the person left the region of high risk of a disease before teenage age.

Heredity – one more of probable causes of multiple sclerosis. The risk to ache in a family with cases of multiple sclerosis in 1-3 degrees of relationship makes 2-5%. However, the gene which is responsible for a course of a disease was not found.

Also the herpes viruses starting autoimmune reaction of an organism at patients with multiple sclerosis are considered as potentially dangerous factors. There are also data on influence of the hormones suppressing immunity as about one of the possible reasons of multiple sclerosis.

However it is necessary to recognize that all these theories have under themselves no sufficient scientific base.

Symptoms of multiple sclerosis

Refer bystry fatigue, unsteadiness of gait, disturbance of balance and a different type of sensitivity to early symptoms of multiple sclerosis (temperature, tactile, vibration, etc.). Patients with multiple sclerosis at the initial stage of a disease quite often complain of decrease in sharpness and narrowing of a field of vision.

Early symptoms of multiple sclerosis have, as a rule, tranzitorny (the passing character). Their emergence quite often happens against the background of a respiratory viral disease or a considerable overheat of an organism. It can lead to underestimation of gravity of symptoms of multiple sclerosis and later diagnosis of a disease.

Against the background of progressing of pathology patients with multiple sclerosis have late symptoms of a disease:

• selective fatigue of extremities,
• paresis of muscles,
• decrease in visual acuity of one eye (feeling of fog or spot before an eye), doubling of the image,
• dizziness,
• disturbances of the speech,
• sphincteric frustration (swallowing, urination, bowel emptying).

The clinical picture of a disease can be described in more detail, only precisely knowing type of multiple sclerosis.

Types of multiple sclerosis

According to the international classification it is accepted to allocate 4 main types of multiple sclerosis having different specifics of manifestation of symptoms:

• remitiruyushchiya,
• secondary progressing,
• primary progressing,
• remitiruyushche-progressing.

The explicit periods of an aggravation and remission are characteristic of remitiruyushchy multiple sclerosis. During an attack of a disease there is a resistant aggravation of symptoms of multiple sclerosis lasting up to 24 watch. The next 30 days a condition of the patient with multiple sclerosis usually stable.

At the secondary progressing disease type neurologic symptoms of multiple sclerosis in steps accrue during the aggravation periods. They stanovit even more often and soon the periods of remission of a disease become low-expressed. The secondary progressing type of a disease develops at patients with multiple sclerosis of a remitiruyushchy form on average 10 years later from the beginning of a disease in the absence of treatment.

At primary progressing multiple sclerosis symptoms promptly accrue since the beginning of a disease. The periods of an aggravation and remission in this case are absent.

One more type of a disease, the remitiruyushche-progressing multiple sclerosis, is characterized by sharp increase of symptoms during the periods of the attacks, since an early stage of a disease.

Diagnosis of multiple sclerosis

Early diagnosis of multiple sclerosis is very important as it allows to prevent rapid increase of symptoms and the patient's invalidism. However because of an extensive clinical picture and a tranzitornost of symptomatology the diagnosis is established, as a rule, late.

On the other hand hyper diagnosis and too earlier purpose of specific therapy of a disease it is capable to do notable harm to health of the person also. Except dynamic observation of the patient diagnosis of multiple sclerosis includes a magnetic and resonant tomography and an immunological research of liquor.

Treatment of multiple sclerosis

High performance of treatment of multiple sclerosis – one of the most urgent problems of modern neurology. Especially in connection with the fact that ways of prevention and the reason of multiple sclerosis are still unknown.

However and in the field of treatment of multiple sclerosis there are no special achievements yet. In therapy of exacerbations of a disease corticosteroids in individual dosages are usually applied. Their purpose – to reduce an inflammation of a spinal cord and to reduce attack duration. In addition sick with multiple sclerosis antioxidants, antiagregant, vasoprotectives, etc. are appointed according to the general therapeutic scheme.

Immunomodulators are applied to prevention of aggravations in treatment of multiple sclerosis. They allow to reduce the frequency of the periods of the attack of a disease by 30%.

The symptomatic treatment of multiple sclerosis assumes physical therapy for partial recovery of motive and touch functions of the patient. To improve quality of life of the patient with multiple sclerosis, to recover social activity and to normalize its mental states psychorehabilitation sessions are held.