If MRI shows signs of MS, will the disease develop?

ST. PAUL, Minn. – With more and more people having brain MRIs for various reasons, doctors are finding people whose scans show signs of multiple sclerosis (MS) even though they have no symptoms of the disease. A new study published in the December 10, 2008, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology, found that a third of these people developed MS within an average of about five years.

The study involved 44 people who had brain scans for various reasons, such as migraine headaches or head trauma, that showed abnormalities similar to those that occur in MS. The researchers confirmed that the abnormalities were the same as in MS and ruled out other possible causes. Then the researchers monitored the participants to determine whether they developed the disease.

Within an average of 5.4 years, 30 percent of the participants had developed MS symptoms. The brain scans of an additional 29 percent of the people showed further abnormalities, but they continued to have no symptoms of the disease.

"More research is needed to fully understand the risk of developing MS for people with these brain abnormalities, but it appears that this condition may be a precursor to MS," said study author Darin T. Okuda, MD, of the University of California, San Francisco, the UCSF Multiple Sclerosis Center and a member of the American Academy of Neurology.

source: EurekAlert