Abstract

RISK FACTORS OF MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS IN SULAIMANIA CITY

*Dr. Saad F. Noori and Dr. Mohammed Tahir

ABSTRACT

Background: Multiple sclerosis is the principal inflammatory demyelinating disease of the central nervous system (CNS), MS is an autoimmune disease in which the body's immune response attacks a person's central nervous system (brain and spinal cord), leading to demyelination. MS affects the ability of the nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord to communicate with each other, almost most of the neurological signs symptoms can be seen in this disease, MS take several forms, with new symptoms occurring either in discrete attacks (relapsing forms) or slowly accumulating over time (progressive forms). Between attacks, symptoms unusually may resolves completely or usually left with permanent neurological deficits of variable severity. Disease onset usually occurs in young adults between age (20_ 40 years), and it is more common in females (female: male ratio 3:1). It has a prevalence that ranges between 2 and 150 per 100,000. Objective: To Evaluate the potential risk factors of multiple sclerosis in Sulaimania city. Patient and method: We studied all the patients with clinical definite MS who attended to neurological department in general - hospital in Sulaimania city. All patients, after written consent, they fulfilled the criteria for inclusion in the study. The questionnaire had been adopted. The main data obtained were: gender, age, and skin color, level of the educational state, history of vaccination, migrational history before the age of 15 years, risk of the head trauma, and risk of smoking in the development of MS. Result: Logistic regression analyses suggest that female were more likely to exhibit than male in which 32 of the 50 cases (64.0 %) were female and 18 (36.0%) cases were male (female: male ratio 2.7:1), and male cases had a significantly older mean age 31.67years old, (SD: 3.93) compared with female cases 30.53years = 4.75). old (SD gender - and age specific prevalence rates of definitive multiple sclerosis is given in the disease was most prevalent in people between 30 and 35 years old, mean age for these cases was 30.94 years old (SD = 4.46), there is considerable age specificity for multiple sclerosis onsets with a peak at age 31 years. Statistically significant differences were also noted between the two group of skin colors and the development of MS, in which prevalence of MS in the black(20%) is lower than that in whites(80%), (P_value 0.01) for both male and female. A direct and significant association was observed between highest level of education and prevalence of multiple sclerosis for both men and women (74%), (p. value: 0.03), and cigarette smoking and the risk of MS development (P_value:0.00). (P value 0.17 ;), migration (P value:0.18), and vaccination (P_value :0.128). the etiology of MS development, our data indicate that the risk factors found in this group of patients with gender in which the female were affected more than the male (female: male ratio 2.7:1), male cases had older age at onset compared with female cases, white skin patients more liable than black ones, and highly educational level and history of smoking highly associated with MS development. We found also independent risk factors of MS and head trauma. Conclusion: This study confirmed the existence of risk factors.

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