Multiple Sclerosis (MS) Support Group

In this article by the Rocky Mountain MS center, Dr.Vollemer is described to have said on page 5..

But, when the MRI came on board, we
found people were actually having 10-20
inflammatory, events per year but only
one clinical relapse.

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my note: inflammatory events are lesions clinical relapses are caused by an inflammatory event(lesion) but most are silent and do not cause a relapse.
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http://www.creditcards-onthego.com...

And From....
United Spinal Association under Lesions & Location & Characteristics it says.....
...
There usually is not a one-to-one correlation between brain lesions and symptoms, and in fact new brain lesions are observed up to 10-times more often as clinical relapse (McFarland et al., 1996). Lesions in the brainstem and spinal cord are more likely to cause symptoms of a clinical relapse, and lesions in the optic nerve (connecting the retina of the eye to the brain) are difficult to see without specialized MRI pulse sequences.

http://www.unitedspinal.org/msscen...

Congratulations 5 is enough to get you disease defined, but luckily not the worst case, yet. Welcome to the land of uncertainty..its good he is starting you on Avonnex so you WON'T become a worst case!

I have no idea how many lesions a year is normal. I developed 7 new lesions in two weeks. I just had another MRI last wednesday and get to see the results next week.

Congratulations on finally being diagnosed. Must be a huge relief! and luckily being started on medication asap can slow the progression

Thank you so much for tracking that information down, nnyl1. That's good to know. Sometime next spring, I'll go in for my 2nd MRI and we'll probably cofirm MS if more lesions are there than this past spring.

I've had no new lesions in over 2 years. So I think it varies.