@Article{, title={Anti-Myelin Associated Glycoprotein Antibody and Relapsing Remitting Multiple Sclerosis among A Sample of Iraqi Patients}, author={Dr.Kareem M. Al-Tameemi, د. كريم التميمي and Dr. Anmar U. Hatam, د. انمارحاتم and Dr. Akram M. Al-Mahdawi, د. اكرم المهداوي}, journal={Karbala Journal of Medicine مجلة كربلاء الطبية}, volume={5 no 1}, number={11}, pages={1194-1199}, year={2012}, abstract={ackground:Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an inflammatory demyelinating disease of the central nervous system affecting nearly 2 million people worldwide. The pathogenesis of MS is at best incompletely understood. There are several proposed mechanisms that may be important in the production of MS plaques: autoimmunity, infection, bystander demyelination and heredity. Deviation of immune responses plays a central role in the pathogenesis of MS. Auto antibodies to many myelin constituents is present in MS. These antibodies may be an autoimmune reaction to an “MS antigens” or simply part of a generalized “non-sense” antibody response. In either case, the antibodies may affect the pathology of MS.Objective: To study the association between Anti-myelin associated glycoprotein (anti –MAG) antibody and relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis in Iraq.Method: 105 patients with relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis and 85 patients with other neurological diseases (OND) as control group were recruited in this study. The cases were collected from Baghdad teaching hospital, MS center, Baghdad, Iraq at the period from April 2009 to February 2010. The sera of all patents were tested for MAG- antibodies.Results: The present study showed increase in the percent of patients with positive anti-MAG antibody in patients with relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis than the control group( 7.6% in the patients group viz 3.5% in the control group) but with no statistical significance. Also among patients group we try to study the relationship between severity of the disease measured by expanded disability status scale (EDSS) and positive serum anti-MAG antibody and we found no significant statistical association.Conclusion: There is a higher percent of patients with positive anti-MAG antibody in the serum of patients with relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis than the control group.

} }