The focus of OMRF’s Multiple Sclerosis Center of Excellence is to provide optimal medical care while advancing the understanding of MS—a disease of the central nervous system. Multiple sclerosis is an autoimmune disease of the brain and spinal cord caused by inflammation and degeneration. Inflammation causes damage to myelin, the protective covering that surrounds nerve cells. When this covering is damaged, nerve impulses are slowed and sometimes totally blocked. Degeneration can cause nerve cells to die prematurely. This combination of effects causes a variety of symptoms, including problems with vision, tremors, paralysis, painful spasms, imbalance, and cognitive changes.

From an MS clinical research perspective, we are interested in the visual system, cognition, balance and ambulation in MS.

Multiple sclerosis poses many scientific challenges that cover the spectrum from molecular research to clinical outcomes. A hindrance to all types of research and clinical interventions is the relative lack of objective, quantifiable measures of disease progression. These “disease markers” are yet to be identified and validated and may include autoantibodies, cytokines, MRI parameters, anatomical neuronal evaluation, and disability measures.

A clinical research interest of our center is the use of computerized systems to evaluate gait and balance. This approach identifies changes before they are apparent on regular physical examinations and can be used to accurately monitor progression. Another is the use of optical coherence tomography to measure potential neuronal loss in the retina as an indicator of a corresponding process in the brain that is secondary to MS-induced inflammation and/or neurodegeneration.