During the last 25 years, multiple sclerosis (MS) has seen major changes with new diagnostic criteria, a better identification of disease, individualization of disease prognosis and the appearance of new therapeutic options. As a result, the management of MS patients has become more complex and challenging. The objective of these consensus recommendations was to review how the disease should be managed in Ecuador to improve short, mid and long-term outcomes in affected patients. Methods: A panel of experts in neurology from Ecuador, dedicated to the diagnosis and care of MS patients, gathered virtually during 2023 and 2024 to carry out consensus recommendations on the management of MS patients. To achieve consensus, the methodology of “formal consensus-RAND/UCLA method” was used. Results: Recommendations were established based on published evidence and expert opinion. Recommendations focused on diagnosis, disease prognosis and tailored treatment, treatment failure identification and the pharmacovigilance process. Conclusions: The recommendations of these consensus guidelines attempt to optimize the health care and management of patients with MS in Ecuador.
multiple sclerosis
Factores asociados al tiempo libre de discapacidad en pacientes con Esclerosis Múltiple de un instituto de neurología en Medellín, Colombia. Factors associated with disability-free time in patients with Multiple Sclerosis of a neurology institution in Medellin, Colombia
Introduction: Multiple Sclerosis is the leading neurological cause of disability in young adults. The objective of this study was to describe the time free from disability since diagnosis and to analyze associated factors.
Method: Retrospective follow-up study of a cohort based on records of patients who consulted the Neurological Institute of Colombia between 2013 and 2021. Progression to disability was defined as the time to obtain a value greater than 3.5 on the EDSS scale. Parametric survival model for interval censored data with Weibull distribution was used to estimate survival function and Hazard Ratios.
Results: 216 patients were analyzed. The median disability-free time was 12 years (95% CI 7.56-17.66). Cerebellar complications (aHR = 8.18; 95% CI 4.09-16.35), vision (aHR = 2.25; 95% CI 1.25-4.05) and age at diagnosis over 40 (aHR = 1 .28; 95% CI 0.68-2.4) were associated with shorter time to progression, other initial symptoms (aHR = 0.35; 95% CI 0.18-0.68), stem lesions (aHR = 0.6; 95% CI 0.33-1.1), MSRR (aHR = 0.17; 95% CI 0.08-0.33) and women were associated with a longer time to progression.
Conclusion: Clinical and imaging factors allow identifying patients at high risk of rapid progression to disability.
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Estudio piloto sobre el funcionamiento sexual en mujeres con Esclerosis Múltiple en México. Pilot Study on Sexual Functioning in Women with Multiple Sclerosis in Mexico
Introduction: Sexual dysfunction in women with Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is frequent. The way it is approached by physicians and communication with patients has not been widely explored.
Objective: Describe the sexuality of women with MS, their satisfaction with their relationship and communication with doctors.
Material and Methods: Descriptive cross-sectional study, carried out in the MS Clinic in the main concentration center in Mexico, with self-administered questionnaires through an online survey, on mental health, couple relationships, doctor-patient interaction on the subject of health sexual and reproductive, female sexual functioning, intimacy and sexuality.
Results: 37 women participated, average age 35.0 ± 8.25 years. They have been with the disease for 4.3 ± 3.8 years and the main course is relapsing remitting MS (79.2%). 89.1% report sexual intercourse and 43.8% used contraceptives in their first relationship. Out of self-interest, 40% spoke to a doctor about sexuality. Women who are not in a relationship and have not spoken to a doctor about sexuality score low in the domains of sexual functioning.
Discussion and Conclusions: Communication about sexual health is fundamental and for this the doctor-patient relationship is central.
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Magnetic Resonance Poor Prognostic Factors In Mexican Multiple Sclerosis Patients. Factores de Mal Pronóstico Por Resonancia Magnética en Pacientes Mexicanos Con Esclerosis Múltiple.
Introduction: Multiple sclerosis is one of the main causes of disability in young people. It has characteristic lesions in magnetic resonance images which are part of diagnosis criteria, and some of them could predict a long-term disability. In mexican population there is no description about multiple sclerosis imaging characteristics.
Materials and methods: We performed an observational, descriptive, cross-sectional, and retrolective study at the Neurology Service of Specialties Hospital of Siglo XXI National Medical Center of Mexican Social Security Institute, in Mexico, evaluating magnetic resonance images characteristics of patients with multiple sclerosis diagnosis between January 2017 and January 2020.
Results: 75 patients were included, 8% had 1-3 T2-weighted lesions, 18.6% had 4-9 T2-weighted lesions, and 73.3% had 10 or more T2-weighted lesions. 50.6% had infratentorial lesions and 61.3% had spinal cord lesions. Gadolinium enhancing lesions were found in 48%, with a median of lesions 2 (IQR 1,3).
Conclusions: Mexican patients with multiple sclerosis have a great incidence of magnetic resonance image poor prognosis factors, which should lead to a closer follow-up and influence treatment options.
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Carcinoma de Células de Merkel en Paciente con Esclerosis Múltiple en Tratamiento con Fingolimod. Merkel Cell Carcinoma In A Patient With Multiple Sclerosis Treated With Fingolimod
Fingolimod is a disease-modifying therapy widely used in Relapsing-Remittent Multiple Sclerosis. It blocks the capacity of lymphocytes to leave the lymph nodes, causing lymphopenia. This increases the risk of infections, but also non-melanocytic skin tumours. We report a case of Merkel cell carcinoma in a patient treated with fingolimod and a review of the literature, which helps to understand the relation between immunosuppression, opportunistic infections and cancer.
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Puntaje Global de Potenciales Evocados Multimodales Sensoriales en el Estudio de Pacientes Con Esclerosis Múltiple. Global Score Of Sensory Multimodal Evoked Potentials In The Study Of Patients With Multiple Sclerosis.
Introduction: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a demyelinating, inflammatory and degenerative disease of the central nervous system. Multimodal sensory evoked potentials (MSEP) have been used to evaluate the integrity of sensory pathways but have not been globally considered as a tool to MS diagnose.
Objective: to evaluate the relationship between the global score of MSEP with the degree of disability and the presence of structural lesions in MS patients.
Methods: Thirty-five patients with relapsing-remitting MS were studied in the International Center for Neurological Restoration. The score of the MSEP was correlated to the disability scale of Kurtzke and the degree of lesions evidenced in magnetic resonance images.
Results: A significant correlation was found between the global score and disability scale (R=0.33, p<0.05) and between the global score and the number of lesion levels detected in the resonance images (R=0.42, p< 0.05).
Conclusion: The relationship between the global score of the MSEP and the structural lesions and degree of disability confirms its utility to study MS patients, even though they aren’t part of the diagnostic criteria.
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Factores Clínicos y Radiológicos Relacionados Con la Progresión de la Discapacidad en Esclerosis Múltiple. Clinical And Radiological Factors Related To The Progression Of Disability In Multiple Sclerosis
Multiple Sclerosis is a chronic demyelinating disease of the central nervous system, of unknown cause, of variable prognosis with high cost treatment. It may include sensory, motor, cognitive and behavioral alterations, as well as fatigue, pain, sexual and sphincter dysfunction, it represents a common cause of severe physical disability in young adults. Different factors that contribute to the progression of disability have been described. This work aims to describe clinical and radiological factors related to the progression of disability in patients with multiple sclerosis. A narrative review about clinical and radiological factors related to disability progression was made in PubMed, Embase, Science Direct, Scopus, and Lilacs data bases. We found 217 articles, after removing duplicates and systematic reviews, meta-analysis and clinical trials, 20 articles were left. Some factors such as vitamin D levels, general symptoms, brain atrophy, gray matter lesions, among others, are related to disability progression in multiple sclerosis. Magnetic resonance is the most important test for diagnosis and follow-up of the disease. The most appropriate way to assess the progression of disability includes clinical evaluation, magnetic resonance imaging, and other diagnostic tests.
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Multiple Sclerosis: A Review Of The Clinical Practice Guidelines. Esclerosis Múltiple: Una Revisión de Las Guías de Práctica Clínica
Neurological disorders are considered as one of the serious issues worldwide. While, many of the disorders have cure, there are still neurological diseases that lacks of curative treatment. Multiple sclerosis is one of them. It doesn’t have any cure, and therefore the prognosis of the disease is not so good. For this reason, the attention of the healthcare providers is mostly on the clinical management of the patients suffering from multiple sclerosis. The available literature for the clinical guidelines is into various dimensions, with a central focus to care the patients according to the evidence-based recommendations and rationales. A narrative review methodology is used to identify, evaluate, and analyze the available clinical guidelines worldwide. In total, ten clinical guidelines were found out of which only two fulfilled the quality guideline criteria. A quality guideline is the one in which four components are present: systematic review, meta-analysis, expert feedback and levels of recommendations. 2/10 clinical guidelines is a very less number which clearly indicates that there are many loop holes that need to be fixed in order to have a good pool of clinically evident recommendations.
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El Perfil Epidemiológico y Clínico de la Esclerosis Múltiple en el Ecuador. The Clinical And Epidemiological Profile Of Multiple Sclerosis In Ecuador.
In recent years, the number of publications on Multiple Sclerosis (MS) from Ecuador has seen a significant increase. As a result, the research on the clinical and epidemiological behaviour of the disease has allowed us to make comparisons with other cohorts of patients with MS that come from regions where the prevalence of the disease is high. Nevertheless, Ecuador is still a country in which the prevalence of MS is low with a prevalence that fluctuates between 3 to 5 cases per 100,000 inhabitants. The epidemiological behaviour of MS is very similar to that of european cohorts, for example female patients are the most affected. However, the clinical behaviour of multiple sclerosis differs in terms of cognitive impairment and fatigue being less frequent. The impact of vitamin D on patients with MS is still unknown as only one study has been carried out. This study show that there is a high prevalence of vitamin D deficiency and insufficiency in ecuadorian patients, but this does not translate into an increase in prevalence or disability as it does in european populations. Although we have a better understanding of the disease in the country, more studies are necessary, and it is imperative that all ecuadorian patients with MS be included in future studies in order to improve our knowledge about the behaviour of this disease in our region.
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Valor del Potencial Evocado Auditivo de Latencia Media en el estudio de personas con Esclerosis Múltiple Forma Brote–Remisión.
A prospective study was carried out to establish the utility of Auditory Middle Latency Response (AMLR) in the evaluation of patients with relapsing- remitting multiple sclerosis. Twenty subjects were evaluated with the multimodal battery of auditory, visual and somatosensory evoked potentials, AMLR, and motor evoked potential by transcraneal magnetic stimulation. The results showed the following abnormalities: 60 % in the AMLR, (only 50 % of them with clinical symptoms), 25% in the auditory brainstem response, 85 % in the visual response and 90 % in somatosensorial and motor potentials. We found significant differences between the auditory tests and the rest of the electrophysiological techniques (rate comparison, p<.05). Those differences disappeared when auditory tests were considered together. There was a significant association between anatomical and functional tests in the evaluation of the auditory pathway, and a positive correlation between the absolute latency of Na, Pa, and Pb components and the temporal course of the disease. The results suggest the convenience of including AMLR in the battery of evoked potentials for the study of relapsing- remitting multiple sclerosis patients.
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Efectos de la Terapia con Campos Magnéticos en los Niveles de Fatiga de las personas con Esclerosis Múltiple.
Introduction: Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is a demyelinating and neurodegenerative disease of the Central Nervous System. It is the major cause of neurological disability in the young adult. One of the most frequent and refractory symptoms to treatment is fatigue. Objective: To evaluate the efficacy of treatment with Magnetic Fields for fatigue produced by MS.
Material and Method: An almost experimental-type intervention study was performed in 14 patients evaluated at the Psychomotor Evaluation Lab and diagnosed with MS (Mc Donald et al) who presented fatigue. The Impact Fatigue Scale (IFS) was applied before and after the treatment with 1750-l magnetic bed was conducted for 4 weeks and 20 minutes, 50 Gauss. Statistics tests used were Spearman and ANOVA within the statistics program. The level of significance was p<0.05.
Results: The sample was composed by women (86%). The most frequent clinical form of MS was the Secondary Progressive (64.3%). Fatigue was found in 92.9% of cases, with an evolution period of 6 months or more. This is one of the symptoms that produced greater disability in these patients. After treatment with magnetic fields there was fatigue improvement in 92.9% of cases according to the evaluation of the fatigue impact scale. Tolerance to treatment was excellent.
Conclusion: Therapy with magnetic fields produced improvement of fatigue symptom in this group of patients with MS, especially in the progressive type.
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Estudio piloto de tratamiento de pacientes con Esclerosis Múltiple con el uso de una formulación homeopática de la Biomodulina T.
25 patients with defined exacerbating-remitting Multiple Sclerosis (MS), with a score between 1 and 5.5 according to Kurtzke’s disability scale, were treated with Biomoduline T at 6 ch during 15 months. After concluding this treatment 83% of the patients were clinically stable according to the disability score. Due to the immunoregulating and anti-inflammatory effects of this product, the possibility of employing this homeopathic variant for the treatment of MS is suggested, considering its low cost of production and the fact that no adverse reactions were referred.
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Esclerosis Múltiple y neuroplasticidad: Eventos en la patogenia y proyecciones terapéuticas.
Several forms of neural plasticity can occur in the adult Nervous System activated by experience and regulated by the interaction among the environment, stress, physical exercises, and physiological conditions (i.e. pregnancy). Recent studies demonstrate that specific neuroplastic events occur in Multiple Sclerosis (MS) and its experimental animal model, as well as some punctuate failures in neuroplastic mechanisms. Basic pathogenic mechanisms of MS related to axonal and myelin integrity loss and associated to inflammation processes and the dual roll of inflammation in the neurodegeneration/neuroprotection relation are reviewed. We emphasize in the actual therapies trends in those topics and in the current evidences of neuroplastic changes in MS.
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Características Neuropsicológicas del Proceso del Pensamiento en los Subtipos de Esclerosis Múltiple.
Introduction: The study of thinking has been a superior but forgotten psychological process in the neuropsychological investigation field. But it plays an important role in the human being auto regulation. Objective: to identify the neuropsychological characteristics of thinking process in patients with Multiple Sclerosis considering its expression in the different subtypes of the disease. Material and methods: It included a sample of 60 admitted patients in “Faustino Pérez Hernández” Rehabilitation Hospital in Sancti Spíritus province, Cuba. A neuropsychological battery of thinking was applied from Luria’s postulates, directed to explore its practical-constructive and logical-verbal expression with techniques of simple analogies, test of lineal syllogism, interpretation of proverbs, construction of cubes, test of prepositional structures, solving of arithmetic problems and Paced Auditory Serial Addition Test (PASAT-3). Results: Investigating the structure of thinking in its logical-verbal expression, difficulties were evident in the establishment of logical links, in simultaneous synthesis, andhypothesis contrast, while in their practical-constructive expression, moderate and partial difficulties were evidenced in space synthesis and in programming activities and behavioural planning. Conclusions: Deterioration was verified in the processes of practical-constructive and logical-verbal thinking. Greater deficiencies were found in progressive clinical forms, specifically the secondary progressive multiple sclerosis.
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Esclerosis Multiple en un Hospital del Litoral Ecuatoriano.
Objective: An observational study was conducted in 45 patients with Multiple Sclerosis in a hospital in the Ecuadorian Coast, in order to characterize the disease in our environment.
Methods: During the period of 8 years (2002 – 2010), demographic and clinical characteristics, disability status using the modified Kurtzke, assessment of functional systems and response to immunomodulatory treatment are evaluated.
Results: Of the 45 patients studied 58% were women, the most common age group was between 30 – 39 years. The predominating type was relapsing remitting (RR) followed by secondary progressive (SP). It is determined that the nuclear magnetic resonance (RM) is the complementary method of choice for diagnosis and monitoring of patients and the relapse rate was low using immunomodulatory therapy.
Conclusions: The study suggests that the presentation of the disease in a hospital in the Ecuadorian coast is lower than in the inter-Andean region probably due to demographics or other factors yet to be determined, but that the clinical features, the subtypes of the disease and immunomodulatory treatment response is similar to the series found in countries of the same characteristics.
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Propuesta Pedagógica para la Compensación de la Memoria Viso-Espacial en Pacientes con Secuelas Neurológicas.
During the perception of an object, a complex system of temporary connections, which reflects the links and relationships between objects, their parts and properties in the brain, appears.
Objective: To determine how the designed pedagogical proposal influences in the compensation of the viso- space memory in people with neurological sequels.
Material and method: A pre pedagogical experiment in a group of 20 patients was carried out. A neuropsychological battery was used evaluating visual memory, viso-construction, perceptual and motor speed, care, executive functions and verbal intelligence (NEUROPSI) both initial and final to verify the memory deficit. Results were compared and the percentage is reported.
Results: The studied group age range was between 21 and 55 years. The main feature found was the inaccuracy in the reproduction of the model due to the latent attention deficit. The disorders of the mechanism to fixate memories were one of the greatest difficulties presented. An improvement in each variable was observed.
Conclusion: The designed pedagogical proposal influenced positively the visospace memory compensation in the group of patients under investigation.
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Encefalomielitis Aguda Diseminada: Formas de Presentación y Espectro Clínico. Serie de Casos.
Acute disseminated encephalomyelitis is an inflammatory demyelinating disease of the central nervous system. Although it often follows an infection or immunization, there are some cases without previous history. It develops usually as a monophasic disease, however recurrent and multiphasic cases have been reported. Its diagnosis is suggested based on clinical features, magnetic resonance imaging and negative complementary test results. We report 5 cases of acute disseminated encephalomyelitis illustrating its wide clinical and prognostic variety. Both mild and significant cases are reported. A previous history of infection was present only in one case. No patient developed symptoms suggesting multiple sclerosis during an 18 to 48 months follow-up. Conclusions: Acute disseminated encephalomyelitis is an uncommon condition that presents with a variety of symptoms. The major differential diagnosis is MS; however other demyelinating and infectious processes must be included. Treatment options include intravenous corticoids, immunoglobulins or plasmapheresis. The patient’s response to treatment is proportional to the prognosis.
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Esclerosis Mùltiple, Virus del Herpes Humano Tipo 6 y Chlamydophila Pneumoniae
Background and objectives: An increasing number of papers are showing a relationship between two infectious agents, human herpes virus 6 (HHV6) and Chlamydophila pneumoniae (Cp), and multiple sclerosis (MS), although these results remain controversial. The objectives was a meta-analysis of clinical series published in literature until now. Material and Methods: An electronic database search (Medline, Excerpta Medica and IME) was performed with MS relapsing remitting and the infectious agents as keywords. A strict selection criteria was applied. 16 studies were selected who complained with the methodological criteria. Results: After statistical analysis, we found that HHV6 was related with MS by detection of DNA in plasma and antibodies in serum and cerebrospinal fluid, but not with DNA in cerebrospinal fluid or peripheral blood white cells. Cp was related with MS by detection of DNA in cerebrospinal fluid, antibodies and the isolation of bacteria of cerebrospinal fluid, but not with serum antibodies. Conclusions: A study with enough number of patients and samples, prospective, controlled with healthy subjects and other neurological diseases, with multiple microbiological techniques in the same sample and patient, and correlated with clinical and paraclinical activity parameters, are needed.
