Medical Encyclopedia

Multiple sclerosis, also referred to as disseminated sclerosis, is a chronic progressive disease of the central nervous system characterized by loss of some of the myelin sheath surrounding certain nerve fibers and having as eventual consequences speech and visual disorders, tremor, muscular incoordination and partial paralysis.

Generally there are 4 basic types of multiple sclerosis, though two people will never have the identical clinical course of this disease. So diverse are its symptom and the ways it manifests itself in. Relapsing / Remitting multiple sclerosis is characterized by regular exacerbations following remissions with new more severe symptoms appearing. The majority of people with multiple sclerosis are first diagnosed with exactly this type of the disease.

Secondary progressive multiple sclerosis is the second phase of the disease which usually develops within 10 years of Relapsing / Remitting phase of sclerosis. Secondary progressive multiple sclerosis is characterized by gradual deteriorations of the patient's condition between relapses. Gradually relapses fuse into a general progression.

The third phase is progressive relapsing multiple sclerosis which is a steady advance of clinical neurological damage with worsening of symptoms.

The last phase is primary progressive multiple sclerosis, which usually develops not in the brain but in the spinal cord and gradually migrates to the brain. The peculiarity of this phase is that there are no remissions at all.

Actos shows beneficial effects in the patients with relapsing / remitting multiple sclerosis and secondary progressive multiple sclerosis. Thus, only the first two phases of multiple sclerosis procure reasonable grounding for Actos therapy. It has been acknowledged that Actos, originally an anti-diabetic agent, shows protective effects in the brains of the people suffering from the most common form of sclerosis - relapsing / remitting multiple sclerosis. However, recent clinical experiments have evinced that treatment with Actos for a substantial period of time does induce apparent clinical improvement in patients with secondary progressive multiple sclerosis. That is why now it has extensively entered the treatment therapies for multiple sclerosis.

Patients treated with Actos for their multiple sclerosis show little loss of gray matter in their brain. Besides, Actos does not cause any adverse reactions and patients find it easy to take it. All these factors considered, doctors pin great hopes on Actos saying that this anti-diabetic drug shows great promise in the fight with multiple sclerosis.