Learn more about diagnosing multiple sclerosis
At this present time, there are no specific tools, physical findings, or laboratory tests that can solely determine that if a person has or has not the condition of multiple sclerosis. A number of strategies come together to decide whether or not you meet the long-established criteria for the diagnosis of multiple sclerosis. An accurate diagnosis of multiple sclerosis needs to rule out the other possible causes of the symptoms that a person is experiencing. The confusion of the signs and the symptoms matching the criteria of other diseases like neurological disorders and some cognitive disabilities rises very often. The basic strategies to rule out the confusing and similar signs are taking a careful medical history, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), blood tests, neurological exam, and spinal fluid analysis.
There might be a number of possible causes of all the neurological symptoms that a patient is experiencing. The exclusion of other causes for attributing these signs and symptoms is very important for making a potential diagnosis of multiple sclerosis. With the help of a repeated series of testing, it is possible to exclude the other possible causes of the neurological symptoms accurately. The physician needs to find proof of the damage in at least two different areas of the central nervous system, which includes the spinal cord, brain, and optic nerves. It is also mandatory for the accurate diagnosis of the patient to find evidence about the destruction occurring at different points in the central nervous system. The use of cerebrospinal fluid analysis according to the recent advances in the study of multiple sclerosis is very beneficial for an accurate diagnosis of multiple sclerosis.
The diagnosis is only possible to make when you have at least one or two attacks of multiple sclerosis symptoms. After the reporting of two separate attacks in the patient, then the doctor gains the confidence to go for the MRI scanning. There might be the possibility of having no brain lesions in the scan, but there are symptoms of multiple sclerosis in the patient, and in this condition, the doctor further monitors the patient. After the diagnosis, it is very important to determine the type of multiple sclerosis that the patient has.