symptoms

The thing about becoming increasingly immobile is that your consumption of TV, radio, podcasts, books and, indeed, anything written goes up immeasurably. Luckily, one of the creative explosions in the recent years I’ve had MS is Scandi drama. I don’t know if it’s really penetrated the U.S. market, although…

Gait and balance issues and MS go together like peanut butter and chocolate. At least they do to me. In one way or another, they’ve been in the foreground of my life since I was diagnosed in 2013.

Editor’s note: Tamara Sellman continues her occasional series on the “MS alphabet” with this column referencing terms starting with the letter “P.” This post comes sixth in a series of seven. Symptoms of MS Progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML) Though progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML) isn’t an actual symptom of MS,…

My favorite season is fall, which is almost tied with winter, then spring, and finally, summer. I love fall for being the beginning of the holiday season as well as for the change in temperature. Although, since moving to Southern California, it…

Ampyra (dalfampridine), approved to treat walking difficulties in multiple sclerosis (MS) patients, also helps with cognition and movement in the upper and lower extremities, according to a recent scientific presentation. These findings were reported at the 3rd Annual Americas Committee for Treatment and Research in Multiple Sclerosis (ACTRIMS) Forum 2018 in…

A columnist reflects on a common MS experience: raising concerns that feel dismissed during medical care. This piece looks at patient advocacy when changing doctors is not easy, and how you can work toward better communication and care.

A specially tailored program focused on balance and eye-movement exercises can help multiple sclerosis (MS) patients improve balance, dizziness, fatigue, and quality of life, according to a…

An estimated 85 percent of people with MS experience some type of spasticity due to the disease, according to a recent report (p/w) published in Multiple Sclerosis and Related Disorders. Why is that important? Because spasticity is behind many of the disease’s most debilitating physical, emotional and mental…

Editor’s note: Tamara Sellman continues her occasional series on the MS alphabet with this column referencing terms starting with the letter “P.” This column is fifth in a series of seven. Symptoms of MS Plaque This is one of the common…

Nothing resets your thinking like bouncing your head off a hardwood floor. At least, for me. It was about 10 p.m. on a Saturday night, and we were shutting down the house. That routine consists of turning lights off, locking doors, and plugging in phones and…

Removing obstructions in large neck veins reduced multiple sclerosis patients’ headaches for several years, British and Italian researchers have demonstrated. The magnitude and duration of the effect differed among patients with different types of MS, however. Researchers also found that the treatment reduced fatigue, particularly in relapsing-remitting (RR) MS patients.

Editor’s note: Tamara Sellman continues her occasional series on the MS alphabet with this column referencing terms starting with the letter P. This post comes fourth in a series of seven. Symptoms of MS Postural tremor Tremors (specifically, cerebellar tremors) are a common symptom of MS. A…

I am watching the computer curser taunt my inability to collect my thoughts. Three days out of chemotherapy, my brain is more fried than usual, the fog thick and dense. For those unfamiliar with cog fog (cognitive fog), it is a clouding…

It seemed to be such a harmless rabbit hole. After last week’s column on Rolfing — and a response divided between those who thought it sounded like terrible torture and those who agreed it was torture but they liked it — I decided to explore some other ideas…

Multiple sclerosis patients have high levels of a protein called osteopontin in their cerebrospinal fluid and blood, making it a potential tool for diagnosing the disease and predicting its course, a study suggests. The research, “Osteopontin (OPN) as a CSF and blood biomarker for multiple sclerosis: A systematic review and meta-analysis,” was published in the journal PLOS One. Researchers wanted to know if levels of osteopontin in cerebrospinal fluid and blood could be a reliable biomarker for MS. To arrive at answer, they “conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis" of studies that had measured the protein's levels in cerebrospinal fluid and blood "in MS patients and controls." The team searched for studies in three databases — PubMed, Web of Science and Scopus. Out of 27 that met their criteria, they used 22 in the meta-analysis. All four types of MS were represented in the studies — clinically isolated syndrome, relapsing-remitting MS, secondary progressive MS, and primary progressive MS. There were three types of controls in the articles — healthy people, people with non-inflammatory neurological disorders, and people with inflammatory neurological disorders. Researchers' first observation was that all of the MS patients had higher levels of osteopontin than controls. The protein's levels were significantly higher in relapsing-remitting MS patients than in those with clinically isolated syndrome, the group with the lowest osteopontin levels. Levels were similar in the other types of MS. Patients with an active disease had significantly higher levels of the protein in their cerebrospinal fluid than those with a stable disease. The results supported previous studies' findings that osteopontin levels are higher than normal in the cerebrospinal fluid and blood of MS patients, strengthening the notion that it could be used as a biomarker for MS. “Given the fact that OPN [osteopontin] levels are higher during relapses, we think that by monitoring this biomarker,  we might be able to predict the disease course," the team wrote. "We propose that developing drugs modulating OPN concentration may be a new treatment strategy for MS."

Multiple sclerosis patients with central nervous system pain have high levels of a protein known as nerve growth factor in their cerebrospinal fluid, a study shows. The research, “Nerve growth factor is elevated in the CSF of patients with multiple sclerosis and central neuropathic pain,” was published…

Deep grey matter volume loss in the brain drives multiple sclerosis (MS) progression and disability, and is particularly evident in people with progressive forms of the disease, a retrospective multi-center study suggests. The study “Deep grey matter volume loss drives disability worsening in multiple sclerosis” was published in…

Editor’s note: Tamara Sellman continues her occasional series on the “MS alphabet” with this column referencing terms starting with the letter P. This post comes third in a series of seven. Symptoms of MS Pseudoexacerbation Sometimes a person with MS may feel they…

Editor’s note: Tamara Sellman continues her occasional series on the “MS alphabet” with this column referencing terms starting with the letter “P.” Last in a series of seven. Symptoms of MS Phosphenes If you’ve ever noticed bright, flashing, swirling, or circular light patterns on the…

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a safety alert about gadolinium, the dye that’s injected when our doctors order a brain MRI “with and without” contrast. The dye provides the contrast that “lights up” areas of MS inflammation in the brain. But the FDA advisory is…

Editor’s note: Tamara Sellman continues her occasional series on the MS alphabet with the second column in a series of seven referencing terms starting with the letter “P.” Symptoms of MS Ptosis Commonly referred to as “droopy eyelid,” ptosis (pronounced TOE-sis) sags…

As we all know, MS is difficult to diagnose. Put another way, it’s easy to misdiagnose. There’s no single diagnostic test for MS. Neurologists use their clinical examination, the patient’s medical history, and lab tests. They also rely on MRI imaging of the brain and sometimes of the…

Editor’s note: Tamara Sellman continues the MS alphabet with the first in a series referencing terms starting with the letter “P.”  Symptoms of MS Paroxysms This term describes sudden and violent occurrences of symptoms in those who are chronically ill. The symptoms…

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has updated a safety bulletin about gadolinium-based contrast agents (GBCAs), after studies raised new concerns about them. Doctors often use GBCAs to diagnose multiple sclerosis (MS), monitor disease activity and verify the effectiveness of MS therapies. Gadolinium is a metal ion, or electrically charged molecule, that…

A deterioration in multiple sclerosis patients' handwriting aligns with drops in their movement, sensory and cognitive skills, a study reports. MS includes loss of hand dexterity and finger movement control. This affects a patient's capacity to manipulate objects and coordinate hand movement, skills needed in handwriting. Previous studies have shown that MS patients had less handwriting rhythm and control than healthy people. This time researchers decided to compare the handwriting movements of both MS patients and healthy volunteers. The research involved 19 MS patients and 22 healthy age-matched controls. The team asked participants to write a specific sentence on a digitizing tablet. They discovered that the way MS patients wrote was much different than those of the controls. The patients took a lot longer to write each word and to achieve spacing between words. This led to them taking a much longer time overall to write a sentence than healthy people. In addition, analysis of handwriting strokes showed that MS patients' writing wasn't as smooth as that of healthy people. Researchers also found a correlation between patients’ movement abilities and cognitive status on the one hand and their handwriting ability on the other. The team said it believed “these findings might be very useful when planning rehabilitative task-oriented interventions focused on handwriting abilities.” In fact, rehabilitation specialists should consider evaluating “both the motor movement and the cognitive status of PwMS [patients with MS] in order to tailor the intervention."

Editor’s note: Tamara Sellman continues her occasional series on the MS alphabet with this column referencing terms starting with the letter “O.” Symptoms of MS Optic neuritis This is a common symptom of MS, though not everyone who experiences optic neuritis…

University of Huddersfield researchers have developed a blood test for diagnosing multiple sclerosis that avoids the invasive, painful process of collecting fluid from the brain and spine. The team at the British discussed the test in an article titled “Sphingosine and dihydrosphingosine as biomarkers for multiple sclerosis identified by…

(Editor’s note: Tamara Sellman continues her occasional series on the MS alphabet with this column referencing terms starting with the letter “N.”) Symptoms of MS Neurogenic bladder Many people with MS experience problems with the bladder. A neurogenic…

Multiple sclerosis patients should be routinely assessed for chronic and, especially, neuropathic pain in order to properly diagnose and treat this condition, which appears to directly affect the degree of a patient's disability, a new study reports. Pain is one of the most disabling clinical symptoms of MS, associated with suffering, distress, and lower quality of life. Many studies have investigated the prevalence of chronic pain in MS patients but with highly varying results: estimates range from 29 percent up to 92 percent. This disparity is likely due to methodological differences between the studies, as well as differences in the studied population. The result is the prevalence of pain in MS is still unclear, and underdiagnoses of pain in this patient population likely. Researchers in Italy conducted a single-center study to determine the prevalence and characteristics of chronic pain, defined as constant pain for more than three months, in a population of MS patients. Pain was evaluated using validated tools, and the results were analyzed in relation to clinical features such as disease duration and disability. In total, 374 MS patients with different disease severities were assessed for pain. Results found an overall prevalence of chronic pain of 52.1, most frequently affecting the lower limbs. Neuropathic pain, which refers to pain resulting from a lesion or disease impacting the sensory nervous system, was the most frequent type of chronic pain, affecting 23.7 percent of the patients analyzed. Pain intensity was also found to be significantly higher in patients with neuropathic pain compared to those with non-neuropathic pain. Researchers measured patients' disability using the Expanded Disability Status Scale. They determined that patients with chronic pain, and especially those with chronic neuropathic pain, had significantly higher EDSS scores (meaning greater disability) than those without such pain. Both these patient groups were also more likely to be on long-term pain medications: 33 percent of MS patients with neuropathic pain, and 24 percent of those with chronic pain. These results indicate that pain is underdiagnosed and undertreated in MS patients, and a factor that may contribute to increased disability. “Our results suggest that clinical disability is higher in MS patients with chronic pain and, in particular, in those with neuropathic pain,” the researchers concluded. “The present study supports the routine assessment of neuropathic pain in MS patients.”

Researchers further explored how our internal biological clock — known as circadian rhythm — influences immune system responses. Disruptions to that rhythm are associated with immune diseases like multiple sclerosis (MS), although in ways not fully understood and, the study suggests, may affect response to treatment. A natural 24-hour cycle that exists…