الفهرس 
INTRODUCTIONOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
Recent decades have seen remarkable scientific breakthroughs in the medical scientific research, and perhaps MS is the best example of such statement. MS has morphed from being a virtually untreatable disease to apparently the most dynamic field of new therapeutic methodologies and applied research in all of neurology.
There is no doubts that descriptive and epidemiological studies are of great importance in the field of MS; as they give us a deeper understanding of the nature of the disease and consequently a greater ability to manage it efficiently.
NMSU is the largest MS center in Alexandria and one of the largest in Egypt. It provides professional medical services for hundreds of patients from Alexandria and other nearby governorates. Besides, it is considered to be a promising center for scientific research in the field of MS, based on its great pool of well-registered clinical and radiological data, and its well-organized work system.
This study is a cross sectional descriptive study for MS patients, who were registered in NMSU since its establishment on August 2014 till November 2018.The aim of this study was to assess the clinico-radiological characteristics of such MS population and compare them to other national and international figures, as well as reaching conclusions based on the available data through correlational and regression analysis studies.
Expectedly, this study showed that MS was more prevalent in females than in males, with ratio 2.38:1, however, this ratio differs regarding MS type being almost equal in PPMS. Males were more prone to have progressive types of MS, higher EDSS and shorter time to progressive phase, yet without a significant difference compared to females.
The prevalence of familial MS among our MS population was 11.6% while the prevalence of family history of other autoimmune disorders was 9.5%. The percentage of patients having other comorbid diseases was 16.6%, of which cardiovascular, autoimmune and psychiatric diseases were the most common. No statistically significant difference regarding EDSS was found between those with and without comorbidities.
The mean age of onset of MS in this study was 27.49 ± 8.50 years and the median was 26 years. The age of onset of MS differed regarding the type of MS; being significantly higher in PPMS. Unexpectedly, males had a significantly younger age of onset than females.
It was found that the mean and the median age of onset of PPMS patients matches closely with that of the beginning of the progressive phase in SPMS patients, which means that PPMS patients may have a relative advantage that they have a longer diseases-free period before the onset of illness in compared to RRMS patients who indeed started the disease earlier and eventually reached the debilitating progressive phase (SPMS) at a comparable age to that of PPMS patients.
Both POMS and LOMS may have specific clinical characteristics and may face additional diagnostic challenges compared to the ordinary adult onset MS. In this study LOMS represented only 0.8% (4 patients