Multiple Sclerosis

Kálmán, Bernadette

doi:10.1002/9780470692363.ch3

Cited by 1 publication

(2 citation statements)

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“…In spite of many efforts since the time of rendering Multiple Sclerosis (MS) as a disease, its etiology remains unclear. Although it is accepted that auto-reactive lymphocytes play essential role in MS, the cause of this auto-reactivity and its relapsing-remitting course are unknown [ 1 ]. Up to now, genetic studies could not determine specific genes as the cause of MS and studies on monozygotic twins demonstrated that the role of genes in the susceptibility to MS does not exceed 30% [ 2 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Researchers always indicate that the major role in MS pathogenesis is attributed to the effect of environmental factor(s) on the basis of a genetical susceptibility [ 1 ]. Specific epidemiological features of MS, such as significant latitudinal gradient of prevalence, the effect of migration, and the effect of month of birth on alteration of the risk of MS, all indicate to the presence of an environmental factor that should be strongly related to time, location and geophysical features.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Geomagnetic disturbances may be environmental risk factor for multiple sclerosis: an ecological study of 111 locations in 24 countries

Sajedi

Abdollahi

2012

BMC Neurol

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BackgroundWe noticed that a hypothesis based on the effect of geomagnetic disturbances (GMD) has the ability to explain special features of multiple sclerosis (MS). Areas around geomagnetic 60 degree latitude (GM60L) experience the greatest amount of GMD. The easiest way to evaluate our hypothesis was to test the association of MS prevalence (MSP) with angular distance to geomagnetic 60 degree latitude (AMAG60) and compare it with the known association of MS with geographical latitude (GL). We did the same with angular distance to geographic 60 degree latitude (AGRAPH60) as a control.MethodsEnglish written papers with MSP keywords, done in Europe (EUR), North America (NA) or Australasia (AUS) were retrieved from the PubMed. Geomagnetic coordinates were determined for each location and AMAG60 was calculated as absolute value of numerical difference between its geomagnetic latitude from GM60L. By an ecological study with using meta-regression analyses, the relationship of MSP with GL, AMAG60 and AGRAPH60 were evaluated separately. MSP data were weighted by square root of number of prevalent cases. Models were compared by their adjusted R square (AR2) and standard error of estimate (SEE).Results111 MSP data were entered in the study. In each continent, AMAG60 had the best correlation with MSP, the largest AR2 (0.47, 0.42 and 0.84 for EUR, NA and AUS, respectively) and the least SEE. Merging both hemispheres data, AMAG60 explained 56% of MSP variations with the least SEE (R = 0.75, AR2 = 0.56, SEE = 57), while GL explained 17% (R = 0.41, AR2 = 0.17, SEE = 78.5) and AGRAPH60 explained 12% of that variations with the highest SEE (R = 0.35, AR2 = 0.12, SEE = 80.5).ConclusionsOur results confirmed that AMAG60 is the best describer of MSP variations and has the strongest association with MSP distribution. They clarified that the well-known latitudinal gradient of MSP may be actually a gradient related to GM60L. Moreover, the location of GM60L can elucidate why MSP has parabolic and linear gradient in the north and south hemisphere, respectively. This preliminary evaluation supported that GMD can be the mysterious environmental risk factor for MS. We believe that this hypothesis deserves to be considered for further validation studies.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%