Publications

Abstract : Multiple sclerosis is the most common chronic autoimmune neurodegenerative disorder of the Central Nervous System (CNS), which occurs due to the destruction in myelin sheath of the nerve fibres. AIM: To study the clinical profile and treatment pattern of patients with multiple sclerosis attending in a tertiary care hospital. This was a retrospective, observational study conducted at the department of Neurology in Amrita institute of Medical Science and Research Centre for a period of one year. The list of patients with MS attended neurology department during JAN 2005 to JUN 2017 was obtained from Amrita Health Information System (AHIS) support team of AIMS on requisition. The patients satisfying exclusion and inclusion were selected from the obtained list. A total case of 43 patients with multiple sclerosis were analysed. The minimum age of onset was 6years and the male to female ratio was found to be 1:2.3. Most common symptoms shown by patients are muscular issues (69.8%) and sensory disturbance (67.4%), and the other symptoms are visual disturbance (48.8%), bladder issues (30.2%), cognitive problems (14%) and the headache, walking difficulty, ataxia, and balance disorder were the least common symptoms shown. RRMS was found in 76.74%, SPMS in 16.3%, PPMS in 4.7% and PRMS in 2.3% of cases with one-time relapse in majority. Major therapy included Oral (76.7%) and IV (37.2%) corticosteroids and immunomodulatory agents like interferon beta 1a (18%) and azathioprine (9.3%). Drugs for neuropathic pain, bladder issues, cognitive issues like amitriptyline, pregabalin, tolterodine, piracetam, dimethyl fumarate etc., were also prescribed. Our study observed a predominant form of relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis with female preponderance. Majority patients had one-time relapse with more than one lesion especially in periventricular white matter and had complaints of muscle weakness and sensory disturbances. Treatment pattern had shown the wide use of corticosteroids in oral and IV form and addition of immunomodulatory agents like Interferon beta 1a. Since the exact cause of the disease is still unknown, treatment provided to the patients were based on their symptoms.