Clinical features of multiple sclerosis in the south of Brazil: a partial analysis.

UNLABELLED There are no published studies on the characteristics of multiple sclerosis (MS) patients from the south of Brazil. OBJECTIVE To identify the clinical features of a series of MS patients and to compare to other Brazilian series. METHOD Retrospective study with 67 patients followed in The MS Reference Center - RS, Brazil during the year of 2008. We analyzed demographic and clinical data. RESULTS Most were women (74.6%), the general average age was 43.5 years old, and the general average EDSS score was 4.1. Of those patients, 81.8% had relapsing-remitting MS. Sexual dysfunction prevalence was 31.1% in men and 68.9% in women (p<0.01). We found a positive correlation (Spearman=0.444, p<0.05) between EDSS and depressive symptoms. CONCLUSION This study showed a very similar sample compared to other states of Brazil. Moreover, there was found a high prevalence of sexual dysfunction and a straight relation between EDSS and depressive symptoms.