Membranes, Myelin, and the Pathophysiology of Multiple Sclerosis

Abstract

DEMYELINATION, or the loss of myelin, characterizes a number of common neurologic diseases. The most common of these is multiple sclerosis. At any given time, there are approximately 250,000 patients with the diagnosis of multiple sclerosis in the United States alone. Moreover, multiple sclerosis may serve as a model disease, since in its classic form its course includes remissions in the presence of apparently fixed histologic abnormalities.This article will briefly review the pathophysiology of nerve-impulse conduction in demyelinated fibers. In particular, it will focus on three major questions: What is the physiology of conduction in normal myelinated fibers? What . . .