The impact of diagnostic criteria for neuromyelitis optica in patients with MS: a 10-year follow-up of the South Atlantic Project.

Background:It is recognized that there is a particular geographic and ethnic distribution of neuromyelitis optica (NMO) among Caucasian and non-Caucasian populations.Objective:To review the diagnoses of patients whom were enrolled in the South Atlantic Project, a Brazilian multiple sclerosis (MS) survey performed from 1995–1998, and to identify NMO and MS case frequencies.Methods:We reviewed the data from a 10-year follow-up of MS patients. To apply the current diagnostic criteria, the neurologists were asked to collect clinical and laboratory data from the medical records of study patients treated from 1999–2009.Results:The spectrum of inflammatory demyelinating disease in 322 patients (67% white; 33% African-Brazilian) was: 49 (15%) with NMO; 14 (4%) with NMO syndromes; 10 (3%) with acute disseminated encephalomyelitis (ADEM); one isolated tumefactive brain lesion; 249 (77%) with MS (151 with relapsing–remitting MS (RRMS), 70 with secondary progressive MS (SPMS) and 27 with primary progressive MS (PPMS)...