Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic disease affecting the brain and the spinal cord (central nervous system – CNS), causing an inflammatory process. MS cannot be completely and definitively cured, but in the last 20 years, many new effective drugs have been developed and introduced as a treatment, which enables people to have a good quality of life.
The exact cause of MS is still unclear. However, the autoimmune mechanism is considered to be one of the causing agents. It means that immune system damages its own tissues, especially the protective conductive sheath of the nerve cells, present in the brain and the spinal cord – myelin, but also the nerve cells (neurons) and their branches, that conduct a nerve signal (axons). MS is one of the most debilitating neurological non-traumatic diseases of young adults in our geographical area.
MS most often begins between the ages of 20 and 40, and it is not uncommon for MS to appear in 15-year-olds, or after the age of 50. The occurrence in women compared to men is in a ratio of 2:1. The incidence of MS in Slovakia is moderately high; the prevalence is approximately 100-150 cases per 100,000 people.