الفهرس 
Multiple SclerosisOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
M
ultiple sclerosis (MS) is an inflammatory demyelinating and neurodegenerative disease affecting more than 2 million people worldwide (Heydarpour, 2015).
It is a leading cause of non-traumatic disability in young adults in many countries (Heydarpour, 2015).
Although genetic susceptibility explains the clustering of MS cases within families and the sharp decline in risk with increasing genetic distance, it cannot fully explain the geographic variations in MS frequency and the changes in risk that occur with migration (Ascherio and Munger, 2007).
Our study aims to determine the prevalence of increased BMI in a group of MS patients and the relation between serum leptin level and disease activity. It is a cross-sectional study carried on 169 patients with definite MS from MS unit at Ain-Shams University with inclusion and exclusion criteria aiming at the elimination of other factors that might affect the study results and 50 controls matched for sex and age.
Our study showed a high prevalence of obesity between MS patients as there were 95 overweight patients representing 56.21% of the study population.
Our study showed that there was no significant correlation between BMI and disease activity nor degree of disability. However, our results indicate the need for further studies with information on BMI at adolescence, at first episode, and later at definite MS before it can be concluded that overweight at adolescence is a predisposing factor for MS, and losing weight may be beneficial.
There was a highly significant difference between the control group and the patients group regarding serum leptin level where MS patients group tended to have higher levels of serum leptin.
Also there was a highly significant difference in weight and BMI between the control group and the patients group as MS patients tended to be overweight.
Also there was no significant correlation between serum leptin level and the degree of disability nor disease activity.
There was no significant correlation between serum leptin level age of the patient, age at onset, total number of relapses.
None of the MRI parameters assessed in our study correlated to BMI nor serum leptin level. Also, there was no significant correlation between serum leptin level and BMI.