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Review: magnetic resonance imaging alone is of limited usefulness in diagnosing multiple sclerosis

Clinical impact ratings IM/Ambulatory care Internal medicine Neurology

Key Words: magnetic resonance imaging • multiple sclerosis

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

METHODS
Data sources: 12 electronic databases (to September or November 2004), reference lists, and the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence MS guidelines.

Study selection and assessment: published and unpublished studies in any language that evaluated the accuracy of MRI for early diagnosis of MS in patients presenting with suspected disease. 18 prospective cohort studies (n = 2102) and 11 studies of other designs (mainly case control, n = 2527) met the selection criteria. The Quality Assessment of Diagnostic Accuracy Studies (QUADAS) criteria were used to assess quality of individual studies.

Outcomes: sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative likelihood ratios (LRs), and diagnostic odds ratio (OR) (the odds of positivity in people with MS, divided by the odds of positivity in people without MS).

MAIN RESULTS
In general, the quality of the studies was poor, with few studies reporting blinding. The pooled diagnostic OR for the accuracy of MRI for diagnosis of MS . . . [Full text of this article]

Brian G Weinshenker, MD

Mayo Clinic,
Rochester, Minnesota, USA