Misdiagnosis of multiple sclerosis occurs in a significant percentage of patients.
Reasons for misdiagnosis:
(1) failure to apply diagnostic criteria properly
(2) failure to consider alternative diagnoses
(3) accepting an historical event as a first attack in the absence of objective evidence
(4) rushing to make a diagnosis
(5) inexperience with multiple sclerosis
(6) misinterpreting findings that are atypical for MS
Conditions that may be misdiagnosed as MS:
(1) migraine
(2) spondylopathy
(3) neuropathy
(4) radiologically isolated syndrome
If imaging or other tests (eg, CSF) are undertaken and are negative, caution needs to be
taken before making a diagnosis of multiple sclerosis, and alternative diagnoses should be considered.
