Neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorders.

ABSTRACT: Neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder (NMOSD) is an uncommon antibody-mediated disease of the central nervous system. Long segments of spinal cord inflammation (myelitis), severe optic neuritis, and/or bouts of intractable vomiting and hiccoughs (area postrema syndrome) are classic presentations of the disease and may alert the clinician to the diagnosis. Untreated, approximately 50% of NMOSD patients will be wheelchair users and blind, and a third will have died within 5 years of their first attack. Unlike multiple sclerosis, a progressive clinical course is very unusual and the accrual of disability is related to relapses. Approximately 75% of patients have antibodies against aquaporin-4, a water channel expressed on astrocytes. Relapses are treated aggressively to prevent residual disa

SUBMITTER: Huda S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6454358 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature