Key result
Rising multiple sclerosis diagnoses in India mirror Western features but high costs limit disease-modifying agents.
Provides an overview of the increasing diagnosis and clinical landscape of multiple sclerosis in India.
Supports heightened MS awareness in India; extends Western data but leaves open affordability solutions for disease-modifying agents.
Multiple sclerosis (MS) is being increasingly diagnosed in India mainly due to increase in the number of practicing neurologists and easy and affordable availability of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The clinical features and course are largely similar to those seen in the West. The term optico-spinal MS (Asian MS) was coined in the pre-MRI days. Many such patients turn out to be cases of neuromyelitis optica - a distinct disorder and not a variant of MS. Others have shown the classical features of MS on MRI scan. Several of the disease-modifying agents, not all, are now available in India. Their use, however, has been limited in view of the high cost.
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Hemali Advani (2015) conducted a review in Multiple sclerosis. Multiple sclerosis is increasingly diagnosed in India with clinical features similar to the West, though the use of available disease-modifying agents remains limited by high costs.
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