'OSMS is NMO, but not MS': confirmed by NMO-IgG?

摘要

The debate continues about whether opticospinal multiple sclerosis (OSMS) is MS or not. Lennon and colleagues1 recently reported the biomarker for neuromyelitis optica (NMO), NMO-IgG, and concluded that it is specific to NMO. The researchers assert that this is proof that "NMO is not MS", that the antibody can distinguish NMO from MS, and that Asian OSMS seems to be the same as NMO.Lennon and colleagues tested serum samples of 102 North American patients with NMO or with syndromes that suggest high risk of the disorder and 12 Japanese patients with OSMS. In a recent report by Cree and co-workers, most African and European American patients with OSMS did not meet criteria for NMO and had brain lesions on MRI. The 12 Japanese patients with OSMS in Lennon's study fulfilled the criteria for NMO set by Wingerchuck and colleagues. Therefore, Lennon and colleagues elucidated the existence of NMO in Japan; and it is important of course that the presence of NMO-IgG is viewed with the same importance in both Japan and the USA. The patients said to have Japanese OSMS in Lennon and colleagues' study do not actually have Japanese OSMS.