Prevalence of autoimmune diseases in MS patients and their relatives in Kerman

Abstract

Abstract Background: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic disease. The etiology of MS is still unknown. Several studies were done to investigate the association between MS and autoimmune diseases, each of them had different result. Objective: This study tried to assess the prevalence of autoimmune disease among patients with multiple sclerosis and their relatives in kerman province. Methods: This descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out from January to June 2002 on 50 definit MS patients ( based on clinical and paraclinical criteria ) who refer to shafa hospital MS clinic and neurologic ward and 200 controls group matched for sex and age . Samples succecively arrived to study. Data were analyzed with chi-square and fischer exact tests. Findings: There was no meaningful difference between MS and autoimmune diseases in case and control groups (6% in case, 1% in control group, P