Diagnostic criteria for multiple sclerosis: 2010 revisions to the McDonald criteria

New evidence and consensus has led to further revision of the McDonald Criteria for diagnosis of multiple sclerosis. The use of imaging for demonstration of dissemination of central nervous system lesions in space and time has been simplified, and in some circumstances dissemination in space and time can be established by a single scan. These revisions simplify the Criteria, preserve their diagnostic sensitivity and specificity, address their applicability across populations, and may allow earlier diagnosis and more uniform and widespread use.     

Paediatric multiple sclerosis: examining utility of the McDonald 2010 criteria

The new McDonald 2010 criteria have been recommended in paediatric multiple sclerosis (PMS). We aimed to assess the utility of McDonald 2010 criteria in comparison with 2007 International Paediatric Multiple Sclerosis Study Group (IPMSSG)-recommended criteria for PMS diagnosis. Retrospective analysis of 38 PMS cases from three UK demyelination clinics was conducted. Dissemination in space (DIS) and time (DIT) for both McDonald and IPMSSG criteria were noted on initial and follow-up magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). At first MRI scan, IPMSSG DIS criteria were fulfilled in 68% of scans and McDonald DIS criteria in 84%. In total, 11/18 children given gadolinium contrast fulfilled both McDonald DIS and DIT criteria on initial scan. The 2010 McDonald criteria appear more sensitive than IPMSSG and may allow PMS diagnosis at first presentation of CIS in at least a half of cases.     

McDonald标准对多发性硬化的诊断意义

目的 研究McDonald标准对多发性硬化(MS)的诊断意义.方法 对47例MS患者,其中视神经脊髓型MS(OSMS)17例、传统型MS(CMS)30例,进行病史收集、查体及MRI,诱发电位、脑脊液检查.运用McDonald标准对MS患者进行诊断.采用Fisher精确检验对两亚型诊断结果 进行比较.结果 OSMS亚组符合McDonald标准确诊MS 16例(94.1%)、可能MS1例(5.9%),CMS亚组符合确诊MS 20例(66.7%)、可能MS 10例(33.3%),两亚组确诊比率的差异有统计学意义(OR=0.1250,95%CI:0.0144～1.083,P<0.05).其中,不需附加证据而符合临床确诊的OSMS患者为16例,而CMS患者为17例,另3例需要结合MRI和脑脊液证据后确诊.结论 McDonald标准诊断OSMS的准确性高于CMS,尤其在确诊MS时更明显.其原因可能与该标准确诊OSMS时主要依赖临床症状和体征,而对CMS需要严格的MRI证据的规定有关.     

诊断多发性硬化的Poser标准与McDonald新标准的比较

目的 比较诊断多发件硬化(multiple sclerosis,MS)的Poser标准和McDonald新标准.方法 将Poser标准和McDonald新标准回顾性应用于临床表现提示为MS的67例患者,采用Fisher精确枪验对两种诊断标准进行比较分析.结果 符合Poser临床和实验室确诊者分别为34例和24例,可能MS者9例,符合McDonald标准的MS确诊者36例,可能MS者31例,两种标准的诊断阳性率差异有统计学意义(OR=5.549,95%CI 2.37～13.00,P<0.01).结论 两种标准住诊断MS,尤其在确诊MS时有明显差异,这可能主要与Poser标准更多地依赖各种亚临床证据,而McDonald标准采用了更为严格的MRI规定有关,脑脊液分析可能在一定程度上有助于提高MS的确诊率和MRI异常的病理特异性.     

Diagnostic criteria for multiple sclerosis: 2005 revisions to the "McDonald Criteria"

New diagnostic criteria for multiple sclerosis integrating magnetic resonance image assessment with clinical and other paraclinical methods were introduced in 2001. The "McDonald Criteria" have been extensively assessed and used since 2001. New evidence and consensus now strengthen the role of these criteria in the multiple sclerosis diagnostic workup to demonstrate dissemination of lesions in time, to clarify the use of spinal cord lesions, and to simplify diagnosis of primary progressive disease. The 2005 Revisions to the McDonald Diagnostic Criteria for MS should simplify and speed diagnosis, whereas maintaining adequate sensitivity and specificity.     

Diagnosis of multiple sclerosis: comparison of the Poser criteria and the new McDonald criteria

OBJECTIVES: A confident and accurate diagnosis of multiple sclerosis (MS) is important, but a specific diagnostic test for the disease does not exist. The traditional diagnostic criteria of Poser et al. were published in 1983, and recently, McDonald et al. recommended new criteria for the diagnosis of MS. PATIENTS AND METHODS: In this study these two diagnostic schemes were compared by prospectively applying both of them to 76 patients with clinical features suggesting a new diagnosis of MS. RESULTS: Using the Poser criteria, 29 patients (38%) were classified as clinically definite and 35 patients (46%) as laboratory definite MS. According to the new McDonald criteria, MS was diagnosed in 39 (52%) patients, 37 patients (48%) had 'possible MS'. All patients with a clinically definite MS with the Poser criteria were also given the diagnosis of MS as recommended by McDonald et al. Of those 35 patients with laboratory definite MS according to Poser et al., four patients could be classified as having MS with the McDonald criteria, 89% of them had 'possible MS'. Conversely, 75% of the 39 patients, who fulfilled the new McDonald criteria for MS were assigned to the category of clinically definite MS according to the Poser criteria, and 83% of the patients with a 'possible MS' using the McDonald criteria, had a laboratory definite MS with the Poser criteria. CONCLUSION: MS according to the McDonald criteria was diagnosed more often than 'clinically definite MS' according to Poser et al., but combining the categories of clinically and laboratory definite MS, the diagnosis of MS could clearly be established more frequently using the Poser criteria.     

MRI criteria for multiple sclerosis: Evaluation in a pediatric cohort

This study assessed the validity of established MRI criteria for multiple sclerosis (MS) in a cohort of 20 children with clinically definite MS. The authors found that many pediatric MS patients did not meet the MRI criteria established for adult-onset MS, particularly the McDonald MRI criteria for dissemination in space. The authors thus suggest that MRI criteria for adult MS be applied cautiously to pediatric MS patients.     

Diagnostic criteria for multiple sclerosis

Over a hundred years ago, Charcot set down what he considered to be some of the clinical characteristics of multiple sclerosis (MS). His triad was not specific but it was the first attempt to separate this disease from the many others affecting the nervous system. The history of clinical diagnostic criteria demonstrates the evolution from rather tentative classifications of restricted value to the more elaborate 1983 scheme which incorporates some laboratory procedures under the rubric paraclinical tests, considered to be extensions of the neurological examination, as well as a new category based on the presence of specific abnormalities of the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). It is curious that until then the term definite MS had been avoided except for autopsy-proven cases, perhaps a wise move, since exact diagnosis may require long term observation. All the proposed schemes have been based on the twin principles of dissemination in both time and space. The diagnosis of MS must remain a clinical one, supported but not supplanted by the increasingly popular magnetic resonance imaging, which is non-specific and is frequently overinterpreted by radiologists lacking appropriate clinical information. Reliance on the MRI as the principal if not exclusive basis for the diagnosis leads to error in as many as one third of cases. This assumes a great deal of importance considering that such non-MS patients may be counted in epidemiological surveys and included in therapeutic trials for disease-modifying drugs, or eventually treated with these very expensive drugs with still controversial long term efficacy. Not surprisingly, attempts to develop reliable criteria for the MRI diagnosis of MS have been unsuccessful in view of the lack of specificity of that procedure. Great care should be taken to exclude the presence of extrinsic cervical spine lesions which might impinge on the cord, leading to the formation of plaques, or mimic the course of MS. An MRI of the cervical spine is recommended in all patients suspected of having MS who have symptoms suggestive of spinal cord involvement.The diagnosis of MS is, and will remain, based on clinical criteria which codify the characteristic dissemination in time and space of MS.     

Application of the new McDonald criteria to patients with clinically isolated syndromes suggestive of multiple sclerosis

Traditionally, multiple sclerosis (MS) has been diagnosed on the basis of clinical evidence of dissemination in time and space. Previously, it could not be diagnosed in patients with single clinical episodes of demyelination known as clinically isolated syndromes. New diagnostic criteria from the International Panel of McDonald and colleagues incorporate MRI evidence of dissemination in time and space to allow a diagnosis of MS in patients with clinically isolated syndromes. From clinical and MRI examinations performed prospectively at baseline, 3 months, 1 year, and 3 years of follow-up, the frequency of developing MS was ascertained by the application of both the new McDonald criteria and the Poser criteria for clinically definite MS. The specificity, sensitivity, positive and negative predictive value, and accuracy of the new criteria for the development of clinically definite MS were assessed. At 3 months, 20 of 95 (21%) patients had MS with the McDonald criteria, whereas only 7 of 95 (7%) had developed clinically definite MS. After 1 year, the corresponding figures were 38 of 79 (48%) and 16 of 79 (20%), and after 3 years, they were 29 of 50 (58%) and 19 of 50 (38%). The development of MS with the new MRI criteria after 1 year had a high sensitivity (83%), specificity (83%), positive predicative value (75%), negative predictive value (89%), and accuracy (83%) for clinically definite MS at 3 years. Use of the new McDonald criteria more than doubled the rate of diagnosis of MS within a year of presentation with a clinically isolated syndrome. The high specificity, positive predictive value, and accuracy of the new criteria for clinically definite MS support their clinical relevance.     

An algorithm to determine the date when the McDonald criteria are met for the diagnosis of relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis

BackgroundA patient is diagnosed with multiple sclerosis once they meet the McDonald criteria of dissemination in space and time. Studies of cohorts of patients with multiple sclerosis need a reproducible way to determine an accurate date of diagnosis. We developed an automatic data-driven algorithm to determine the date when the MacDonald criteria are met, which we validated with the Registre Lorrain des Scleroses en Plaques (ReLSEP), a regional French registry of patients with multiple sclerosis.MethodsWe developed an algorithm to determine the date of diagnosis based on clinical and paraclinical data adapted from the four versions of the McDonald criteria. For validation, the dates of diagnosis generated by the algorithm were compared with those determined by an expert physician using the patients’ files as the gold standard. We calculated the sensitivity and specificity of the algorithm to provide a date, then we tested the equivalence between the dates of the gold standard and the algorithm (two-one-sided-t-test).ResultsThe algorithm used every possibility of determining dissemination in space and time according to the four sets. The sensitivity of the algorithm was 100% for the four sets, and specificity ranged between 95 and 100%. The difference between the dates of diagnosis found by the physician and the algorithm was usually less than 2 weeks (equivalence test P < 0.0001).ConclusionThe algorithm appears to be an efficient surrogate to accurately determine dates of diagnosis of multiple sclerosis in datasets of patients.     

Revision of McDonald's new diagnostic criteria for multiple sclerosis

In 2001, an international panel suggested new diagnostic criteria for multiple sclerosis (MS). These criteria integrate clinical, imaging (MRI), and paraclinical results in order to facilitate diagnosis. Since then, these so-called McDonald criteria have been broadly accepted and widely propagated. In the meantime a number of publications have dealt with the sensitivity and specificity for MS diagnosis and with implementing these new criteria in clinical practice. Based on these empirical values and newer data on MS, an international expert group recently proposed a revision of the criteria. Substantial changes affect (1) MRI criteria for the dissemination of lesions over time, (2) the role of spinal cord lesions in the MRI and (3) diagnosis of primary progressive MS. In this article we present recent experiences with the McDonald and revised criteria.     

Diagnostic criteria for multiple sclerosis: an historical review

Starting with Charcot, diagnostic criteria for multiple sclerosis (MS) have evolved to reflect advances in our understanding of the disease and the development of new diagnostic techniques, and from purely clinical considerations to increasing dependency upon imaging of the central nervous system. The MS diagnostic process was revolutionized by the 1981 introduction of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), but the increasing reliance upon this technique has led to a surge in erroneous diagnoses, mostly because of the failure to distinguish between MS and disseminated encephalomyelitis (DEM), as well as mounting disregard for the data obtained from the traditional history and physical examination. The most recent scheme of McDonald et al. incorporated quantitative MRI criteria of dubious origin and reliability, but failed to provide qualitative, illustrative ones that would help differentiate between MS and DEM. The choice will have to be made by the neurological community between basing the diagnosis of MS on the MRI alone, or to use it as one aspect of a comprehensive clinical diagnostic algorithm. There will never be a substitute for the experienced and astute clinician's 'feel' for the patient.