NEWS - New MS criteria should permit earlier diagnosis

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New MS criteria should permit earlier diagnosis

11/11/2005

By: Reuters Health

NEW YORK (Reuters Health), Nov 11 - The " Mc Criteria " for diagnosing

multiple sclerosis, which have been in place since 2001, have been updated

to further strengthen the role of MRI, which the authors hope will lead to

earlier patient diagnosis.

The original criteria and the updated criteria, which appear in the ls

of Neurology for November 10, were developed by the International Panel on

MS Diagnosis. The criteria bear the name of the panel chairman at the time

the first guidelines were created, Dr. W. Ian Mc, from the Institute

of Neurology in London.

" We hope, and trust, that these revisions will allow an even earlier

diagnosis of MS, without any loss of diagnostic accuracy, " current chairman

Dr. H. Polman, from the University Medical Center in Amsterdam, said

in a statement.

The original criteria were the first to incorporate MRI evaluation into the

diagnostic workup of MS. " A series of studies performed during the last few

years, with improved techniques for spinal cord MRI, shows that it is a

powerful tool not only to demonstrate MS lesions, but also to exclude

alternative diagnoses, " Dr. Polman emphasized.

The core features of the original criteria have been retained in the new

criteria, such as " emphasis on objective clinical findings " and the " need to

eliminate better explanations for the diagnosis. "

What has changed is the details by which to achieve these goals. For

example, the new criteria indicate that two separate MRI scans are

sufficient to evaluate disease progression, whereas the older criteria

recommended three.

http://www.auntminnie.com/index.asp?Sec=sup & Sub=mri & Pag=dis & ItemId=68543 & wf=467

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Mayo Clinic in Rochester

http://www.mayoclinic.org/rochester

s Hopkins Medicine

http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org