Postural Balance in Women with Multiple Sclerosis

Postural imbalance is common manifestation of Multiple Sclerosis (MS) and a frequent cause of significant disability. Proper evaluation and monotoring of its evolution can prove to be a valuable tool in identifying either disease progression or potential benefit of therapeutic interventions. Postural instability in realtively non-dysfunctional MS patients can be hard to recognize even on clinical physical examination. Even though there are no set guidelines or consensus on a standardized way of assessing balance for the MS populations, there are methods that give a quantitative, computerized, objective results that can be followed over time, such as seen with the NeuroCom Balance Master. This very important clinical manifestation is not being effectively used for evaluation of disease progression, despite being one of the most common manifestations of MS. This is even more relevant in patients that have low disability, as they have few identifiable signs of imbalance.