The Aetiology of Disseminated Sclerosis

Abstract

Based upon a Dissertation on “Disseminated Sclerosis” given before the Society on Friday, 10th January 1958.

Disseminated sclerosis is the commonest nervous disease in this country; in the north of Britain at least one in 1300 adults is affected. If any rational or successful therapy is to be introduced the cause must be found and I therefore propose briefly to discuss the main theories of its aetiology.

Disseminated sclerosis is one of the primary demyelinating diseases (as opposed to those causing secondary demyelination such as infarcts) which can be defined as “diseases of the central nervous system showing destruction of myelin sheaths with relative sparing of axon cylinders and supportive tissues usually occurring in multiple foci.”