Multiple Sclerosis Signs & Symptoms - OmniMedicalSearch.com

Conditions & Diseases: Brain & Nervous System

Multiple Sclerosis

Signs & Symptoms
Symptoms vary from person to person. No two people have the same symptoms. A patient's medical history including their present and past symptoms are considered by a physician before carrying out a series of tests to check for signs to correlate and explain the symptoms or point to disease activity. Signs of MS are indications of the disease that are objectively determined by a physician.

A physical examination often includes the following:

Eye examination – This may reveal damage to the optic nerve.
Muscle Strength – This can be done gently but firmly pulling and pushing a person’s arms and legs.
Coordination – This is carried out by asking the patient to bring the tip of the index finger to the nose rapidly with open eyes and closed eyes (finger-to-nose test).

Sensation – Body surface sensation is tested with a safety pin, feather or a light touch.
Vibratory Sense – A vibrating tuning fork is placed at a joint or bone so that a person experiences a buzz-like sensation.
Reflex – Reflexes are examined using fingers or a small rubber mallet.

Common signs observed by a doctor during physical examination include:

Altered eye movements and abnormal responses of the pupils
Subtle changes in speech patterns
Altered reflex responses
Impaired coordination
Sensory disturbances
Evidence of spasticity and/or weakness in the arms or legs (6).

General symptoms of MS are fatigue, weakness, spasticity, balance problems, bladder and bowel problems, numbness, vision loss, tremors and depression. Most of the patients experience episodic patterns of attacks and remission through out the course of disease. Symptoms define the clinical picture of MS and are a result of nerve lesions causing disturbance in electrical conduction in the Central Nervous System (CNS). Symptoms can determine the location of lesions such as an optic nerve lesion causes blurred vision, brain stem lesion may cause dizziness or double vision and a spinal cord lesion may cause coordination or balance problems.

Following are some of the lesion locations and the corresponding signs or symptoms that appear in a patient:

Lesion Location	Signs or Symptoms
Cerebrum & Cerebellum	Balance problems, speech problems, poor coordination and tremers
Motor Nerve Tracts	Muscle weakness, spasticity paralysis, vision problems, bladder and bowel problems.
Sensory Nerve Tract	Altered sensation, numbness, prickling and burning sensation

Symptoms in patients suffering from MS include:

Fatigue: About 78% of MS patients suffer from fatigue. The fatigue is usually late in the afternoon and often subsides in early evening.
Numbness, Tingling and Burning sensation: The earliest symptoms of MS are sensory symptoms occurring in 55% patients. Patients experience tingling, crawling and a feeling of swelling or numbness in the trunk.
Tremors: About 50% patients suffer from shaking or trembling of the limbs or occasionally the head (extreme ataxia). This symptom may lead to impaired mobility and is often associated with difficulty in balancing and coordination.
Depression: Onset of the disease often leads to depression.
Spasticity: In about 41% of cases, spasticity occurs with initial attack and in approximately 62% cases spasticity occurs with a progressive disease. Spasticity occurs when opposing groups of muscles contract and relax at the same time.
Bladder: Increased frequency of urination, urgency, dribbling, hesitancy and incontinence.
Bowel: Constipation, diarrhea and incontinence. Dysfunction occurs in almost two thirds of patients during the course of disease.
Vision loss: Usually starts with a blurred vision followed by loss of vision from 20/20 to 20/30 to 20/40.
Cognitive and Emotional Dysfunction: About 50% of patients with MS suffer from cognitive and emotional dysfunction involving memory, reasoning, verbal fluency and speed of information processing.
Sexual Difficulties: After the onset of disease, more than 90% males and more than 70% females report a change in their sexual life. Some of the problems include decreased sexual drive, impaired sensation, diminished orgasmic response and loss of sexual interest (7).

Article by Kona Vishnu, MS
Medical Writer,
OmniMedicalSearch.com