Studies with a series of MRI scans over time showed how MS plaques actually develop and permitted researchers to track the “burden of disease” in individual patients. This clarified the nature of MS and forced us physicians to alter our fundamental concept of the disease. Serial MRI studies confirmed that the disease is often very active even when patients feel no symptoms. MS is not, as we once believed, a disease that flares up only intermittently with periodic attacks or exacerbations. Rather it is an almost constantly ongoing illness that can cause silent damage within the nervous system. These findings added urgency to the need for effective treatment to reduce this silent damage as early as possible.

At the same time, MRI scanning gave researchers faster and more sophisticated ways of testing drugs to treat MS. The disease is slow and often subtle. The benefits of a new drug can be seen on MRI scans before they can be seen in patients themselves. Research on the treatment of MS was thus greatly accelerated.

Reference

Written by Loren A. Rolak, MD. Reproduced by permission from the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, USA. © NMSS, 2003