Multiple Sclerosis Registry in Argentina (RelevarEM)

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic degenerative disease of autoimmune etiology that affects young adults between 18 and 35 years of age, being the first cause of physical disability of non-traumatic origin in several countries of the world.

MS is characterized histopathologically by the presence of inflammatory plaques in the white matter associated with the presence of axonal damage. Clinically, four evolutionary courses can be distinguished from the disease: a form in which inflammatory outbreaks occur that affect the brain and that the patient refers to as relapses and remissions (RRMS). This form, in most cases and after years of evolution, enters a sustained progression of the disability known as secondary progressive phase (SPMS) being another clinical form of the disease. In a smaller percentage of patients, the disease may have a progressive course from the beginning with the presence of some interposed outbreaks, a form known as progressive with relapses (PRMS), and finally the fourth form of presentation of the disease may be manifest with progression of disability from the outset without originating outbreaks in the course of the same known as primary progressive form (PPMS).

South America is a low-middle risk area for MS with a reported prevalence of between 1.48 and 36 cases per 100,000 population. The cause of observed differences in disease frequency between Europe and North America relative to South America is unknown to date. It is suggested that genetic predisposition would mainly contribute to the geographical variation in the prevalence of MS; however, this factor alone can not explain the overall differences in risk between populations.

The frequency and distribution of this condition has been described in several parts of the world, but it is still necessary to identify it more precisely in the countries and regions of South America.

The main reason for RelevarEM project is the creation of a registry based on a web platform to facilitate the collection of epidemiological data of MS patients from multiple sources in Argentina. The platform will provide the data in a global way that will show the frequency and distribution of the disease in our environment at low cost.