Epidemiological, clinical and genetic studies of multiple sclerosis

• Main Author: Hawkins, Stanley Arthur
• Published: Queen's University Belfast 2008
• Subjects: 610.21
• Online Access: http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.485071

This submission is a compilation of published work generated over a period of fifteen years on my research into the disease, multiple sclerosis. The first paper'is a historical work on the history of the first hundred years of the development of neurology in Belfast. Two distinguished predecessors were pioneers in the field. Studies of the epidemiology of multiple sclerosis have been performed, including analysis of sub-categories of the disease, in particular, benign and primary progressive multiple sclerosis. Studies on the genetic influences on susceptibility to the disease and genetic determinants of the course of the disease have been conducted. Current estimates of the life-time risk for developing multiple sclerosis for women in N. Ireland is 1:200. Two studies on patients in the community identified by their general practitioners have been carried out. These have been audits of the compliance with health monitoring by their general practitioners, and on needs assessments by patients livingin the community. A major component of the presentation is a series of studies of the immune response in multiple sclerosis patients, in the untreated state, early in the course of the disease. Particular interests have been in markers of activity if adhesion molecules and co-stimulatory molecules in the peripheral blood. Studies of adhesion molecule have also been per~ormed in cerebrospinal fluid obtained at diagnostic lumbar puncture, also the effects of treatment with corticosteroids and beta interferon on immune systems during the course of treatment.