Introduction: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic inflammatory demyelinating disease of the central nervous system. The role of oxidative stress has gained importance in the pathogenesis of free radicals in cells such as protein, lipid, and nucleic acids by showing myelin loss and axonal degeneration. In this study, serum total oxidant level total oxidant status (TOS), total antioxidant status (TAS), oxidative stress index (OSI), and paraoxonase (PON) in patients with relapsing-remitting-MS (RRMS) were examined. The hypothesis was that antioxidants might indicate the attack phase or the progression phase. Methods: Twenty-four patients with RRMS known to have undergone new attacks and 24 healthy controls whose demographic data were appropriate were included. PON and TAS/TOS measurements were performed once in the healthy group and twice in the serum samples of patients during relapse and remission periods. The Number Cruncher Statistical System 2007 and Power Analysis and Sample Size 2008 Statistical Software (Utah, USA) program was used for statistical analysis. Results: TAS, TOS, and PON levels were similar in the patient and control groups during the attack. In remission, only a positive, statistically significant relationship between the duration of the disease and TAS measurements was noted (r = 0.435; P = 0.034). No significant relationship was found between sociodemographic characteristics, illness duration, laboratory/imaging findings, and antioxidant parameters in blood. Conclusion: In this study, TOS, TAS, OSI, and PON serum levels had no role in determining attack and remission periods in RRMS. There were only significant differences between disease duration and TAS results during the remission period. Following TAS results may help in monitoring progression in patients with early MS.

Introduction.It is known that multiple sclerosis (MS) often coexists with other autoimmune diseases. Hence, autoantibody (auto-Ab) tests may prove useful in the differential diagnosis of MS. The objectives of this study were to: (a) investigate the prevalence of auto-Ab positivity at the beginning of the MS diagnostic process; (b) assess whether Auto-Ab+ and Auto-Ab-patients differ in baseline clinical, laboratory, and radiological parameters; and (c) investigate the prognostic value during a two-year follow-up period.Material and methods. This retrospective study consisted of 450 patients aged between 18 and 55 years. All patients underwent a wide range of auto-Ab tests, anti-nuclear antibody (ANA) tests in particular. The expanded disability status scale (EDSS) scores of the patients were recorded at the time of diagnosis and at the end of a two-year follow-up period.Results. The mean age of the 212 patients, 148 (69.8%) female and 64 (30.2%) male, included in the study sample was 37 ± 10.83 years. The rate of relapsing cases was 84% (178). Oligoclonal band (OCB) was positive in 142 (86.6%) of the 164 tested cases. At least one of the auto-Ab tests was positive in 51 (24.1%) of the cases. ANA test was positive in 21 (9.9%) cases. There was no significant difference between patients with at least one positive auto-Ab test and without any positive auto-Ab test and between ANA-positive and ANA-negative patients in terms of age, gender, clinical features of MS, presence of brain stem lesion, presence of spinal lesion, OCB positivity, level of clinical improvement after the first pulse steroid treatment, family history, presence of comorbidity, presence of autoimmune disease, or EDSS scores recorded at the end of the two-year follow-up period (p > 0.05). Conclusions.Our study findings revealed that Auto-Ab positivity was more common in MS patients than in the general population. However, given their limited contribution to the diagnosis and differential diagnosis of MS with no effect on the prognostic process, auto-Ab tests should be requested only in the event of accompanying autoimmune disease symptoms, and in cases where the diagnosis of MS may be suspected.

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