LOS ANGELES (Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Nearly 350,000 Americans suffer from multiple sclerosis. Because it affects the two most inaccessible parts of the body -- the brain and spinal cord -- patients suffer for years before they're finally diagnosed. But high-tech magnetic resonance imaging machines are speeding up the process.

Forty-year-old Dara Jones has MS. It's not the diagnosis she wanted, but she says it beats not knowing. For seven years, doctors misdiagnosed her numbness, fatigue, and vision loss. "[I was] always being given things to calm you down," she says. "'Here's a Valium. Here's Xanax. You're just stressed out all the time.'"

When she agreed to an MRI, the seven-year mystery was solved. Jones says, "Right then, boom, they knew -- by accident, they knew."

The MRI gives University of Southern California neurologist Norman Kachuck, M.D., a view inside Jones' brain. He can see white lesions, or damaged areas caused by MS. Those lesions combined with a patient's symptoms can help doctors diagnose MS as soon as a patient has their first attack.

Until now, it took numerous clinical tests and two flare-ups of symptoms -- at least one month apart -- to diagnose MS. MRIs now significantly reduce the time it takes to get that diagnosis.

"If we can intervene in this disease at its earliest state, medicines we have presently will work far more efficiently," Dr. Kachuck says. MRIs may also give patients a clue to where their disease is headed, as studies show the more lesions found initially, the faster the disease may progress.

With exercise, the right diet, and medication, Jones feels better than she has in 10 years. She says, "If I hadn't gone in there that day who knows when I would have been diagnosed, and I could have started treating what I have."

MRI scans are also allowing researchers a faster way to test new drugs for MS. Because the disease progresses slowly and is often silent, the benefits of a new treatment can often be seen on an MRI before they can be felt by a patient.

If you would like more information, please contact:

USC Care
(800) USC-CARE

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