Measles antibodies in patients with multiple sclerosis and with other neurological and nonneurological diseases

Abstract

SUMMARYA study of the sera of over 300 patients for the presence of measles antibodies, as detected by the hemagglutination-inhibition test, is presented. One-hundred thirty-three patients were diagnosed as having multiple sclerosis (MS) and 172 control subjects were neurological patients without evidence of MS and patients with nonneurological illnesses. The average measles antibody titers in the MS patient was twice as high as in control patients. The results suggest that the measles virus may persist in some form in some patients with multiple sclerosis. Final proof of a possible causal relationship between measles and multiple sclerosis cannot be determined until the measles virus can be isolated from patients with multiple sclerosis.