MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS: A TWO-PHASE DISEASE?

Abstract

Statistical analysis of clinical data (sex, clinical stage, and age of the disease) and biological data (CSF total protein, albumin and gammaglobulins by electrophoresis, lymphocytes count) from a population of 326 MS patients (115 men and 211 women) suggests that MS is a two-phase disease. The early phase is probably an intermittent and intrathecal synthesis of antibodies linked to a lymphocytic pleiocytosis: this acute intermittent process may represent a local immuno-logical reaction against a virus. The second phase, on the other hand, is a continuous synthesis of antibodies with simultaneous increase of albumin in CSF and disappearance of any lymphocytic pleiocytosis: the probability being in favour of a synthesis of antibodies out of the CNS (in peripheral lymphoid organs), in other words, of an autoimmune process.