Clinical instrumental and immunological studies of multiple sclerosis in children
The results of clinical examination, data of analysis of the visual evoked potentials, computer and magneto-resonance tomography allowed to diagnose a reliable multiple sclerosis in 25 children (16 girls and 9 boys). The age of the onset of the disease was from 4 to 14 years, the duration of the follow-up--from 1 to 12 years. Monosymptomatic onset, remittent course with frequent exacerbations and successful recovery of the functions during the remissions prevailed. Purposeful treatment allowed to achieve a stable remission in 2/3 of the cases, while a gradual increase of the neurologic deficit was observed in the other patients. Phenotyping by HLA-system revealed association of demyelinating diseases in children with HLA-B12 (RR = 6.0; p < 0.025), together with the absence of HLA-B18 antigen. The authors made a conclusion that multiple sclerosis may be diagnosed in childhood and that it has some clinical and immunologic peculiarities.