The importance of early treatment in multiple sclerosis

Giancarlo Comi, MD, Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, Milan, Italy, explains how early diagnosis and treatment of multiple sclerosis (MS) can improve patient outcomes. Whilst the new diagnostic criteria for MS have enabled the initiation of treatment at an early stage of clinical manifestation, identifying patients even before symptom onset would be highly beneficial. Prof. Comi explains that the use of brain MRI in combination with other specific tests can reveal radiologically isolated syndrome, a clinical situation in which a person has white matter lesions suggestive of MS. This allows treatment to be started even before the first MS attack, thus preventing extensive irreversible brain damage. This interview took place during the XXV World Congress of Neurology.