AUSTIN—The 2010 Revised McDonald Diagnostic Criteria for Multiple Sclerosis (MS) may have a higher sensitivity for diagnosing pediatric MS, compared with the 2005 criteria. The revised criteria thus could allow for earlier initiation of disease-modifying therapy, researchers reported at the 2013 Annual Meeting of the Child Neurology Society.
Mitchel T. Williams, MD, Pediatric Neurologist at the Children’s Hospital of Michigan in Detroit, and colleagues conducted a retrospective study of 25 children who had been diagnosed with MS at the Children’s Hospital of Michigan from 2005 through early 2013. The researchers applied the 2005 and 2010 McDonald criteria based on neuroimaging findings and initial clinical presentation. The investigators also analyzed demographic data and compared those data with those of previous pediatric MS cohorts.
The median age at presentation, sex ratio, clinical symptoms, and relapse rate among the participants were comparable to those in previously published data, except for a high rate of African Americans (64%) among the 25 children. The researchers found that the initial MS diagnosis rate based on the 2005 McDonald criteria was 32%, compared with a rate of 92% using the 2010 McDonald criteria. The mean time after initial symptom presentation until the 2005 criteria for MS were met was 5.0 months, compared with 0.7 months for the 2010 McDonald criteria.
“[Our findings] suggest that the 2010 McDonald criteria are a more appropriate tool for the timely diagnosis of pediatric MS,” concluded the researchers.
—Colby Stong
Editor