ORIGINAL ARTICLE Evaluation of Demographic, Clinical and Beyond Clinical Characteristics in Patients with Multiple Sclerosis in Rafsanjan City, Iran Amir Moghadam-Ahmadi 1,2 , Pouria Yazdian-Anari 3 , Siamak Kazemisuf 1 , Alireza Vakilian 2 , Aliasghar Ranjbartotoei 4 , Fatemeh Ayoobi 1 * 1 Physiology and Pharmacology Research Center, Rafsanjan University of Medical Sciences, Rafsanjan, Iran 2 Department of Neurology, Rafsanjan University of Medical Sciences, Rafsanjan, Iran 3 Faculty of Medicine, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, Yazd, Iran 4 Prevention and Control of Addiction, Rafsanjan University of Medical Sciences, Rafsanjan, Iran Corresponding Author: Fatemeh Ayoobi, E-mail: ayoobi_fatemeh@yahoo.com ABSTRACT Background: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic and progressive autoimmune disease of the central nervous system that causes motor and sensory impairment and physical disability in patients. This study was conducted to determine the demographic, clinical, and beyond clinical characteristics in patients with MS to identify common disabilities and better understand the specifc needs of these. Methods: This descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out on 50 MS patients in Rafsanjan, Iran. A defnitive diagnosis has been done according to neurologist and McDonald criteria. The neurologist conducted examinations, and demographic data were recorded using questionnaire. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) fndings were analyzed by a radiologist, and all data were analyzed using SPSS software. Results: The mean age was 33.81±8.38 years, and male/female ratio was 7/42. Also, 66.7% of the patients were suffering from relapsing-remitting (RR) type disease, and most lesions on MRI in these patients were observed in pyramidal and juxtacortical areas. The mean Expanded Disability Status Scale scores of patients were 1.46. The duration of disease and the number of attacks had a signifcant correlation with educational level (P<0.05); age was signifcantly associated with pyramidal, mental and sphincter symptoms (P<0.05). Conclusion: These results suggest that the prevalence of MS in women was higher than in men, especially among housekeeper women. The RR type was the higher frequency type. INTRODUCTION Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is an autoimmune system disease that affects the central nervous system. MS is characterized by three features, including infammation, demyelination, and scar (1). The cause is unknown, but it appears that acti- vation of immune mechanisms against the antigen of nerves’ axon coating myelin is involved in causing the disease (2). The frst manifestations of the disease usually occur between the ages of 20 and 40 years with symptoms such as anxi- ety, weakness, impaired balance and visual disturbances as well as psychological changes like depression, frustration and decreased ability to solve problems (3). The MS patients threaten the independence and the ability of individuals to participate effectively in the family and social activities as well as leads patients to the lack of a sense of competence and self-confdence. The disease occurs most often in the years that people expect health; with the onset of the dis- Published by Mehrabani Publishing LLC. Copyright (c) the author(s). This is an open access article under CC BY license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) http://dx.doi.org/10.24200/imminv.v2i2.61 ease, a person loses body and health confdence. Due to the unpredictable nature of MS disease, some people may feel that they are unable to plan for the future (4). Behavioral transformations and patterns of modern life predispose indi- viduals to chronic disease and cause reduced life expectancy, disability, family diffculties and increased healthcare costs; therefore, more attention is needed to the lifestyle of people in the community to prevent and control such diseases (5). In Iran, the prevalence of the MS has been reported 15-30 per 100 thousand people (6). The MS occurs due to genetic and environmental factors (7). Inheritance, environmental factors, geographic region, sex, age, smoking, lack of sun- light (vitamins D defciency), nutritional factors, physical injury, and pregnancy are known risk factors for the MS, but most of them still have not been established (8). In this re- gard, the cause of this disease is triggered by an autoimmune process in susceptible individuals with exposure to one or Internal Medicine and Medical Investigation Journal E-ISSN: 2474-7750 Homepage: www.imminv.com ARTICLE INFO Article history Received: Apr 23, 2017 Accepted: May 16, 2017 Published: May 23, 2017 Volume: 2 Issue: 2 Conficts of interest: None Funding: None Key words Multiple Sclerosis, Disability, Demographic Characteristics