TY - CHAP M1 - Book, Section TI - Multiple Sclerosis and Other Inflammatory Demyelinating Diseases A1 - Ropper, Allan H. A1 - Samuels, Martin A. A1 - Klein, Joshua P. A1 - Prasad, Sashank Y1 - 2019 N1 - T2 - Adams and Victor's Principles of Neurology, 11e AB - In the language of neurology, the term demyelinating disease has acquired a special meaning. To define these diseases precisely is difficult, for the simple reason that there is probably no disease in which myelin destruction is the exclusive pathologic change. The generally accepted pathologic criteria of a demyelinating disease are (1) destruction of the myelin sheaths of nerve fibers with relative sparing of the other elements of nervous tissue, that is, of axons, nerve cells, and supporting structures, which are less affected; (2) infiltration of inflammatory cells, particularly in a perivenous distribution; (3) lesions that are primarily in white matter, either in multiple small disseminated foci or in larger foci spreading from one or more centers. In most of the demyelinating diseases, it has been known since the early descriptions that there is some degree of neuronal and axonal degeneration, but it is the preferential effect on myelin that defines this group of disorder. The most common and important inflammatory demyelinating disease is multiple sclerosis (MS). SN - PB - McGraw-Hill Education CY - New York, NY Y2 - 2024/03/29 UR - neurology.mhmedical.com/content.aspx?aid=1162596445 ER -