Prospective 5-year study of benign multiple sclerosis

Benign multiple sclerosis (BMS) includes a triad of criteria: medium disability with the duration of the disease for >10 years while maintaining working capacity. The aim — to evaluate clinical manifestations in patients with BMS during 5 years of follow-up and to develop a prognostic model of the BMS. Materials and methods. We conducted an observational, prospective, double-blind study of 74 patients with BMS. The clinical manifestations in the dynamics and the prognostic factors of the BMS in 15 years of the disease were evaluated. Results. In patients with a favorable disease course with statistical significance (p<0.05) the first symptoms of multiple sclerosis were observed at a younger age; also the patients of this group have been diagnosed with the disease earlier. Output points on the EDSS scale did not appear to be significant. Conclusions. It was established that the proportion of BMS in 15 years is 9.76% of all patients with multiple sclerosis. It is found that the key factors are the type of multiple sclerosis debut and the patient’s age at the time of the first symptom. The developed prognostic model of the flow of multiple sclerosis built by the method of discriminatory analysis allows partially to predict to which group the patient is likely to get after 5 years.