The prevalence of multiple sclerosis in Belo Horizonte, Brazil

Abstract

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a demyelinating inflammatory and degenerative disease of the central nervous system (CNS) whose etiology is still unknown. Epidemiological studies have suggested that the interaction between genetic susceptibility and a variety of environmental factors may play a key role accounting for the differences in its prevalence in distinct populations 1 .In the last few decades, a large number of studies have demonstrated the frequency of MS in all continents 2 . Unfortunately, however, many of these epidemiological studies lack consistent methodological features, such as strict diagnostic criteria, well defined study populations or geographical areas, and complete case ascertainment 3 . Such faults have rendered their results unreliable for comparisons with established data from other geographical areas 2,3 . In Latin America, surveys on the epidemiology of MS are still scanty and most of them exhibit these methodological limitations [4][5][6][7][8] .Interest in the study of MS in Brazil has markedly increased in the last few years. Yet, most investigations have focused on clinical description of hospital-based or MS Centers cohorts in different parts of the country [9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16] . Other studies have concentrated on the association with HLA 17,18 , the influence of ethnic factors on the phenomenological presentation of the disease 19 ; the neuropsychological aspects of the disease 20,21 and the impact of the disease on patients' quality of life 22 .Three papers on the prevalence of MS in well-defined geographical areas in Brazil have been so far published. The first study, in São Paulo city, considered 1990 as the prevalence year and showed a prevalence rate of 4.3 per 100,000 inhabitants 23 . A re-evaluation of this prevalence rate by the same senior author 24 took 1997 as the prevalence year and, through the use of aBstract Investigations on the prevalence rates of multiple sclerosis (MS) around the world have yielded important clues on the interplay between genetic susceptibility and environmental factors. As Brazil is a huge country laid on many latitudes and inhabited by population with distinct ethnic backgrounds, it might be assumed that the frequency of MS varies in its different regions. Objective: To determine the prevalence rate of MS in Belo Horizonte, the capital of the State of Minas Gerais, Southeastern Brazil. Methods: We used six sources to draw up a provisional list of identified cases of MS. Only patients with diagnosis of clinically definite MS according to Poser Committee criteria were included. Results: The calculated crude MS prevalence was 18.1/100,000 inhabitants. Conclusions: The MS prevalence in Belo Horizonte is similar to that found in São Paulo and Botucatu, two other cities in southeastern Brazil with similar ethnic background.Key words: multiple sclerosis, prevalence, Belo Horizonte, Southeastern Brazil.resumo Estudos sobre as taxas de prevalência da esclerose múltipla (EM) no mundo têm fornecido importantes evidências do papel da inter-relaçã...

Clinical and epidemiological profile of patients diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in João Pessoa, Paraíba, Brazil

“…The age average and the first outbreak average of patients, the average disease duration in years, the average number of outbreaks, the average of the EDSS global score, as well as the predominance of RR are consistent with the literature [2][3][4][5]10,24,26 . The diagnosis time in years was greater than the Swedish study Skoog et al 27 , in which the time was two years, while in this study it was 3.9 years.…”

“…White ethnicity was predominant, corroborating most epidemiological studies in Brazil 2,3,4,5,10,24,25,26 , except for the study of Ferreira et al 6 , in which 93.2% were mixed race (African descent). In this respect, classifying patients according to their ethnicity in a country with great miscegenation as Brazil is not an easy task.…”

“…The prevalence of motor, cerebellar, sensory and visual symptoms was also observed in other samples 2,4 . The correlations observed between functional capacity assessed by the EDSS score, despite not reaching statistical significance in studies of Arruda et al 24 .…”

Antiparasitic antibodies occur with similar frequency in patients with clinically established multiple sclerosis with or without oligoclonal bands in the cerebrospinal fluid

“…Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic inflammatory immune-mediated and demyelinating disease of the central nervous system (CNS) [1][2][3] . The frequency of MS in Brazil varies among different regions due to ethnic diversity and the diversity of environmental and socioeconomic characteristics due to the country's large territorial extent [4][5][6] . A recent study on patients with MS in the city of São Paulo, Brazil, showed that oligoclonal bands (OCB) are present in 54.4% of patients with MS.…”

Análise da expressão de miRNAs em subpopulações de linfócitos T em pacientes com esclerose múltipla

“…A sua prevalência é entre 1/500 e 1/1500 na população da Europa, América do Norte e Austrália, afetando principalmente adultos jovens, com idade entre 15 e 45 anos, sendo as mulheres duas vezes mais afetadas em relação aos homens (NYLANDER e HAFLER, 2012). No Brasil a prevalência da doença é de aproximadamente 18 casos por 100 000 habitantes (LANA-PEIXOTO et al, 2012) A doença pode ocorrer em surtos com manifestações neurológicas focais extremamente variáveis (de formigamentos a tetraplegias). Esses surtos, particularmente no início da doença, são espontaneamente reversíveis ou podem ser revertidos com tratamento adequado, podendo ou não deixar sequelas.…”