Multiple sclerosis in childhood: Single center experience

Abstract

Introduction: In this study, clinical and demographic features of childhood multiple sclerosis(MS) diagnosed in a single center for 10 years are presented.Materials and Methods: In this study files of 2.3 patients with multiple sclerosis who were admitted to Department of Pediatric Neurology between January 2006 and January 2016 were investigated retrospectively. The data of 19 cases were evaluated since 3 cases were excluded due to lack of attending the control visits for more than 2 years and 1 case died in a traffic accident. Gender, current age, family history of MS, onset ages of symptoms, age at diagnosis, duration of disease follow-up, initial symptoms, magnetic resonance(MR) findings, cerebrospinal fluid(CSF) oligoclonal band positivity, visual evoked potential(VEP), somatosensory evoked potential(SEP) findings, treatments and a number of attacks were evaluated.Results: Of the 19 patients diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, 13 were female (68.4%), 6 were male (31.5%), and the female/male ratio was 2.16. The mean age of onset of symptoms was 1409 years. The mean age of diagnosis was 15.2 years, and the mean follow-up period was 2.17 years. Family history was positive in 3 patients (15.7%). When the initial symptoms of our patients were examined, motor, sensory and brainstem findings were present in 11(57.8%), 9 (47.3%) and 7 cases (36.8%), respectively. Two patients (10.5%) presented with cerebellar findings and 6 patients (31.5%) with visual impairment. The oligoclonal band of CSF was found to be positive in 17 (89.4%) of the cases.Conclusions: In this study, gender, age, family history, age at onset of symptoms, initial symptoms, MR findings, CSF findings, VEP, SEP findings, treatments used, and the number of episodes were evaluated. Multicenter, prospective, and longitudinal studies with larger study populations are needed to understand multiple sclerosis onset in the pediatric period.