The natural history of early onset multiple sclerosis: comparison of data from Moscow and Vancouver

Paediatric multiple sclerosis and acute disseminated encephalomyelitis in Germany: results of a nationwide survey

“…No primary progressive courses were registered below the age of 10 years. These findings are in agreement with most cohort studies on paediatric MS, which have reported low frequencies for primary progressive courses ranging from 0 to 7% [1,3,9,11,19,[26][27][28]. An age-dependent increase in the rate of primary-progressive courses is well known in the adult MS population [2,32].…”

“…In adult onset MS patients, a polysymptomatic manifestation is observed in only 35-43% of the MS patients [1,25,27], whereas it was reported in 67% of the ESPED paediatric MS-cohort. Other studies on paediatric MS have shown lower frequencies, ranging from 10 to 44%, but these studies were mostly retrospective [3,8,9,11,27]. Remarkably, recently published preliminary results of a prospective study on paediatric MS in Canada reported a monosymptomatic presentation in only 36% of the patients, which is close to the 33% of our study [1].…”

“…In accordance with these findings, a study has just been published in which cerebellar and brainstem symptoms were reported to be the most frequent initial presentation of paediatric MS, appearing significantly more frequently in paediatric MS patients than in a control adult onset MS population [27]. Additionally, several studies of paediatric MS point to a lower incidence of primary motor symptoms in paediatric MS patients than in adult onset MS [3,7,8,11,19,27,28].…”

Acquired Demyelinating Disorders of the CNS in Children

“…However monosymptomatic presentation is also reported in children (Duquette et al, 1987). Encephalopathy and seizures also occur in MS (Gusev et al, 2002). Eye involvement is described in up to 50 % of children with MS (Pohl et al, 2006).…”

“…Optic tract involvement may be asymptomatic and diagnosed only by abnormal visual evoked potentials (Pohl et al, 2006). Fatigue in children is more frequent compared to adults with MS (Gusev et al, 2002). Cognitive decline is reported in 30-66% of children with MS (Banwell and Anderson 2005;Banwell et al, 2007a).…”