title: Is it MS? Presenting symptoms and diagnosis of multiple sclerosis.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Multiple sclerosis (MS) is the most common chronic neurological disease in our community.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To discuss the presenting symptoms that suggest the diagnosis of MS and consider how to confirm the diagnosis and evaluate the differential diagnosis.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  There are protean presenting symptoms of MS but because of the distribution of pathology predominantly in the peri-ventricular region of the brain, certain symptom complexes are more common. With the recent availability of treatment for MS which has been demonstrated to slow the progress of the disease, the need for early diagnosis has become even more important.
authors.affiliation: MS Clinic for the Multiple Sclerosis Society of New South Wales.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Frith
mesh_terms: D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D006801:Humans; D009103:Multiple Sclerosis / Q000175:diagnosis*