Mult Scler. 2004 Feb;10(1):2-4
Bergamaschi R, Tonietti S, Franciotta D, Candeloro E, Tavazzi E, Piccolo
G, Romani A, Cosi V.
Centre for Multiple Sclerosis, Neurological Institute IRCCS C. Mondino,
University of Pavia, Pavia, Italy
We studied repeated cerebrospinal fluids of patients with Devic's neuromyelitis optica (NMO) and multiple sclerosis (MS).
Variations of oligoclonal bands (OBs) had opposite trends in the two groups.
In MS, OBs were detected in 399 of 411 patients (97%) and never disappeared.
In NMO, OBs were detected in three of 11 patients (27%) and always disappeared.
The hypothesis that NMO and MS follow distinct pathogenetic pathways is supported by our findings, which can be useful for the differentiation of NMO from MS.