ABSTRACT
Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an inflammatory disease of the white matter within the central nervous system (CNS), and is characterized by demyelination, axonal injury, focal T cell and macrophage infiltration and loss of neurological function (1-3). An estimated 350,000 people in the United States have MS, with 10,000 new cases reported each year. The disease typically manifests between the ages of 20 and 40, and affects women twice as often as it does men. It is the major cause of neurological disability in young people in the Western Hemisphere. MS is generally categorized as being either relapsing-remitting (RR) or primary-progressive (PP) Invest. onset. The course of disease in about 40% of RR patients ultimately changes to a progressive form known as secondary-progressive (SP) multiple sclerosis. The RR form of disease is characterized by series of attacks that result in varying degrees of disability from which the patients recover partly or completely. This is followed by a remission period of variable duration before another attack. The progressive forms of disease lack the acute attacks and instead typically involve a gradual clinical decline.
