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Abstract

Patients in Fife with multiple sclerosis were identified from three sources: a postal questionnaire to all general practices in Fife, hospital discharge data, rehabilitation service database. A total of 508 patients were identified in a population of 354, 273 giving a crude prevalence rate of 143/100,000. The Standardised Prevalence Rate was 178/100,000. The sex ratio was 2.43 females to males. The prevalence was higher than identified in southern parts of the United Kingdom and similar to northern Scotland A total of 200 (40%) cases were identified as having relapsing-remitting disease and of these 151 were ambulant, making them eligible for treatment with interferon beta-lb under current licensing criteria. Only 90 (60%) of the 151 currently eligible for the drug were under the care of a specialist and almost half the practices felt that they would change their referring habits. These factors may have implications for the workload of specialist clinics.

Keywords

Multiple sclerosis prevalence Interferon beta-lb

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Multiple Sclerosis in Fife

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