Blood Test

Can your blood work show any signs that you may have MS

[dr_simran]

Hello Dear,
Till date there is no blood test  to diagnose MS,researches are being done.
The test is based on the widely held theory that multiple sclerosis is an autoimmune disease. Somehow, the theory goes, the body starts to consider nerve cells to be dangerous enemies. It then attacks, destroying nerve cells' insulating myelin sheaths and, eventually, the nerves themselves. Broken-up pieces of nerve cells -- neural antigens -- enter the blood stream. The immune system sees these antigens as foreign material and attacks them. Unfortunately, this teaches them to attack healthy nerve cells as well.
The idea is to collect immune cells from people who might have MS. If these immune cells get ready for an attack when they are exposed to neural antigens, the chances are good that this person has MS.
Calculations showed that the test -- a combination of three kinds of neural antibodies -- has a sensitivity range of 60% to 80% and a specificity range of 65% to 70%. This means that if the test were given to 10 patients with multiple sclerosis, it would diagnose the disease in six to eight of the patients. If the test were given to 10 people who did not have multiple sclerosis, it would incorrectly say that three or four of them had the disease.
That's not good enough for a stand-alone diagnosis

Multiple sclerosis diagnosis is quite difficult. It depends on clinical indications,  MRI brain scan, analysis of cerebrospinal fluid, and a test of nerve responses. Not all patients show abnormalities on all these tests. The new blood test, it's hoped, will help doctors make this diagnosis more quickly.

Refer http://www.webmd.com/multiple-sclerosis/news/20031024/new-blood-test-helps-confirm-ms

Best