Factors Associated with Brain Multiple Sclerosis Lesions Detected by Magnetic Resonance Imaging

Abstract

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a demyelinating disease that mainly impacts the central nervous system (CNS) and spinal cord. Several factors may affect the risk of MS lesions. Hence, this study was carried out to determine factors associated with brain MS lesions detected by Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI). A prospective cross-sectional survey was carried out in this study. An unenhanced T1, T2, Fluid Attenuated Inversion Recovery (FLAIR) with axial, sagittal, and coronal sections were performed. The respondents who had exposed to radiotherapy or chemotherapy had previous brain pathology or surgery, and brain congenital anomalies were excluded from this survey. A P-value of ˂ 0.05 was considered significant. A total of 71 subjects underwent MRI and included in the statistical analysis. The mean age of the subjects was 31.5 ± 11.5 years, with predominance for females (59.2%) among this study population. Moreover, the findings reported that the family history of MS was highly significantly associated with MS (P = 0.001). Besides, there was no significant association found between gender (P = 0.682), smoking (P = 0.272), alcohol intake (P = 0.986), hypertension (P = 0.792), diabetes mellitus (DM) (P = 0.198), and body mass index (BMI) (P = 0.650). From this study, the family history of MS is found to develop the risk of MS.