Sociodemographic and Neuroimaging Evaluation of Patients with Multiple Sclerosis and Radiologically Isolated Syndrome in Isfahan, Iran

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is categorized into four subtypes, including clinically-isolated syndrome (CIS), primary progressive multiple sclerosis (PPMS), secondary progressive multiple sclerosis (SPMS), and relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS). On the other hand, radiologically-isolated syndrome (RIS) is characterized by the imaging manifestations of MS rather than its clinical symptoms.

This study aimed to compare the sociodemographic and neuroimaging findings of different MS phenotypes and RIS.

The current cross-sectional study was conducted on 3716 patients at the Multiple Sclerosis Clinic of Kashani Hospital, Isfahan, Iran, from June 2018 to April 2019. Patients presenting with RIS, CIS, and MS were included in this study.

The age of disease onset was remarkably lower in patients with RRMS, while the body mass index was significantly higher in RIS (P-value < 0.05). Other factors, including gender, occupation, marital status, smoking, and family history of MS, showed no significant difference (P-value > 0.05). Neuroimaging assessments revealed significant differences in terms of the location of the plaques, the activity of the plaques, brain atrophy, lesion load, the number of cervical plaques, and the presence of longitudinally-extended transverse myelitis (P-value < 0.05), but not regarding the activity of cervical and thoracolumbar plaques and the number of thoracolumbar lesions (P-value > 0.05).

Different MS phenotypes showed variations in terms of sociodemographic and neuroimaging characteristics. Follow-up studies are recommended to determine the risk factors predicting the conversion of RIS and CIS to other MS phenotypes.