Comorbidities Delay Multiple Sclerosis Diagnosis and Increase Mortality

To investigate the interaction between comorbidities and diagnosis of multiple sclerosis (MS), researchers used the Danish Multiple Sclerosis Registry, which contained 8862 eligible patients with MS onset between 1980 and 2005. Of those, 79 had two or more medical comorbidities.

Average time to MS diagnosis was 4 years. Patients with cardiac, pulmonary, cerebrovascular, diabetes, or cancer comorbidities were significantly more likely than those without these comorbidities to have an MS diagnostic delay of ≥10 years. The association held for cardiac and pulmonary comorbidities for a delay of 5 to 10 years. Comorbid autoimmune disease did not lead to a delay in MS diagnosis. Mortality was increased for MS patients with psychiatric, diabetes, c…