Answer From Jerry W. Swanson, M.D. A demyelinating disease is any condition that results in damage to the protective covering (myelin sheath) that surrounds nerve fibers in your brain, optic nerves and spinal cord. When the myelin sheath is damaged, nerve impulses slow or even stop, causing neurological problems.

What is brainstem demyelination?

Answer From Jerry W. Swanson, M.D. A demyelinating disease is any condition that results in damage to the protective covering (myelin sheath) that surrounds nerve fibers in your brain, optic nerves and spinal cord. When the myelin sheath is damaged, nerve impulses slow or even stop, causing neurological problems.

What causes demyelination in brain?

Demyelination of the brain and spinal cord is often caused by inflammation due to autoimmune conditions or in response to viral infections. Multiple sclerosis (MS) causes demyelination in the brain, spine, and/or optic nerve.

How do you treat demyelination in the brain?

Most treatments for demyelinating conditions reduce the immune response. Treatment involves using drugs like interferon beta-1a or glatiramer acetate. People with low vitamin D levels more easily develop MS or other demyelinating conditions. High levels of vitamin D may reduce inflammatory immune responses.

How serious is demyelination?

ADEM can also progress to cause symptoms such as vision problems, weakness, and issues with coordination and movement. When ADEM is severe, it can be life threatening, leading to seizures or coma.

Can you recover from demyelination?

Drugs that fight inflammation can stop the damage to the nerves in your brain and spinal cord. A doctor also can prescribe other medicine to ease some ADEM symptoms. Most people recover fully within 6 months, though in very rare cases, ADEM can be deadly.

Can you see demyelination on an MRI?

People with all forms of MS can have lesions, but people with a common type of MS called relapsing-remitting MS generally have recurrent episodes of inflammatory demyelination. During these episodes, active areas of inflammatory demyelination are sometimes visible on an MRI scan when contrast dye is used.

Can demyelination cause death?

Can you have demyelination without MS?

Other non-MS demyelinating disorders Acute disseminated encephalomyelitis (ADEM) — A brief but intense attack of inflammation in the brain, spinal cord and occasionally the optic nerve that causes damage to myelin. Symptoms of ADEM come on quickly, often beginning with behavior changes.

Can demyelination cause headaches?

Headache associated with demyelinating lesions is characterized by clinical features that, in most cases, meet the ICHD-II criteria [1] for tension headache or migraine.

What happens if multiple sclerosis is left untreated?

And if left untreated, MS can result in more nerve damage and an increase in symptoms. Starting treatment soon after you’re diagnosed and sticking with it may also help delay the potential progression from relapsing-remitting MS (RRMS) to secondary-progressive MS (SPMS).

What is the most common cause of death from MS?

Conclusions: Deaths attributed to MS were commonly caused by infection (especially respiratory and urinary tract-related); conditions associated with advanced disability and immobility, such as aspiration pneumonia; and chronic respiratory disease in men.

What are plaques of demyelination of the brain?

Plaques of demyelination of varied size and shape can involve cerebral cortex and subcortical white and grey matter, cerebellar white matter, brain stem and spinal cord. Periventricular white matter, optic pathways and spinal cord are often extensively affected.

How does demyelinating disease affect the central nervous system?

What types of demyelinating disease affect the central nervous system, and what can you do about them? A demyelinating disease is any condition that results in damage to the protective covering (myelin sheath) that surrounds nerve fibers in your brain, optic nerves and spinal cord.

What is the pathophysiology of demyelinated white matter?

The deep cortical white matter is diffusely rarefied and gliotic, due to a mixture of axonal degeneration and demyelination (fig 8​8). As in small vessel cerebrovascular disease, the demyelinated white matter may contain foamy macrophages but shows depletion of oligodendrocytes.

What are the different types of demyelinating disease?

Other types of demyelinating disease and their causes include: Optic neuritis — inflammation of the optic nerve in one or both eyes Neuromyelitis optica (Devic’s disease) — inflammation and demyelination of the central nervous system, especially of the optic nerve and spinal cord