MULTIPLE-SCLEROSIS IN CHILDHOOD - CLINICAL-FEATURES OF 149 CASES

From the retrospective study of 3375 patients effected by clinically d efinite or probable multiple sclerosis (MS), 149 patients were collect ed with onset of the disease before the age of 16 years (4.4%). Female /male ratio was higher than that of the adult onset MS (AOMS) populati on (2.2 vs 1.6) particularly at ages of onset after 12 years (3.0, P=0 .007 vs AOMS). Among initial symptoms, those suggesting brainstem dysf unction (25%) were more frequent compared to other systems and compare d to AOMs symptoms, motor and sensory disturbances were slightly less frequent (respectively 17.5% and 18.3%). Optic neuritis appeared in 16 .5% of cases with onset in childhood and in 16.2% of cases with AOMS, cerebellar disturbances respectively in 9.1% and 7.7%. The first inter attack interval and the clinical course of early onset MS did not diff er significantly from AOMS. In early onset MS patients with disease du ration <8 years, cases with EDSS>6 were slightly more frequent than in the AOMS group (P=0.04). The frequency of cases for different levels of disability was similar for disease duration >8 years.