Multiple sclerosis progressive forms

B. Indications and nse Avonex is indicated for the treatment of relapsing forms of multiple sclerosis to slow the accumulation of physical disability and decrease the frequency of clinical exacerbations. Safety and efficacy in patients with chronic progressive multiple sclerosis have not been evaluated. 

The medical school definition of multiple sclerosis (MS) is demyelination within the central nervous system that varies in space and time. The term refers to a disorder in which patches of demyelination develop during exacerbations. In the most common forms of MS, exacerbations are separated by varying periods of time in which the disease does not appear to progress. Whether progressive demyelination without clear periods of remission should be considered a form of MS is a matter of definition, about which clinicians specializing in the care of patients with this disorder have argued. Conventional medical nomenclature classifies as distinct entities a number of disorders of myelin that can mimic MS clinically. These include, for instance, the sometimes devastating demyelination localized to the pons or the demyelination that can follow infectious diseases and/or vaccinations. 

Interferon beta is used in the form of natural fibroblast or recombinant preparations (interferon beta-la and interferon beta-lb) and exerts antiviral and antiproliferative properties similar to those of interferon alfa. Although its efficacy has been debated (1), interferon beta has been approved for the treatment of relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis, and more recently for secondary progressive multiple sclerosis. 

The classic example of demyelination of the CNS is multiple sclerosis (MS), in which a chronic inflammatory lesion is characterised by a sharply demarcated plaque containing preserved axons denuded of myelin. Demyelination also occurs in infectious diseases such as progressive multifocal leucoencephalopathy and acute disseminated leucoencephalitis, but it is the disseminated focal form of MS that will be addressed in this review article. 

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