2017 McDonald MS Diagnostic Criteria

[Raingrrl]

There is sometimes misinformation on this forum about diagnosing MS. To help people’s understanding, I’ve attached the 2017 McDonald MS Diagnostic Criteria that doctors are supposed to follow in diagnosing MS. Here is the link to it if you can’t enlarge the photo to read it easily: nationalmssociety.org/Natio...

[cheshcat]

Thank you Raingrrl for posting this!

[jimeka]

Good post, thank you. 🦋 🍫

[bxrmom]

Thanks for posting Raingrrl

Jessie

[RoyceNewton]

Thanx very much, this goes on the wall.

Royce

[greaterexp]

Great info! Thank you.

[CalfeeChick CommunityAmbassador]

Thank you for the post, can't wait to copy/paste then follow up! My MS doc calls my spinal lesions MS, but is hesitate to identify 20+ white spots in brain as MS. They fortunately have not changed size or shape, and no new ones in my first sets of MRI's 6 months apart.

[Raingrrl in reply to CalfeeChick]

Hi CalfeeChick ! Unfortunately, white spots in the brain can be caused by things other than MS making it just much harder to diagnose. Typically the radiolologist that interprets the MRI will look for the white spots to be in certain parts of the brain where MS lesions are found and/or in a certain formation, (such as Dawson's fingers), before suggesting that the lesions could be MS. This is why MS is currently considered a diagnosis of exclusion where the doctor is supposed to rule out other things that can cause the same symptoms. It will be easier on everyone once there is a biomarker that can confirm a definite MS diagnosis. It seems this is close but not quite ready for prime time.