We are the combination of four hospitals: the General Hospital, the Children’s Hospital, the Women’s Hospital and the Traumatology, Rehabilitation and Burns Hospital. We are part of the Vall d’Hebron Barcelona Hospital Campus: a world-leading health park where healthcare plays a crucial role.
Patients are the centre and the core of our system. We are professionals committed to quality care and our organizational structure breaks down the traditional boundaries between departments and professional groups, with an exclusive model of knowledge areas.
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The commitment of Vall d'Hebron University Hospital to innovation allows us to be at the forefront of medicine, providing first class care adapted to the changing needs of each patient.
At the Clinical Neuroimmunology Department, we offer comprehensive care for people with multiple sclerosis and other neurodegenerative diseases of the nervous system, such as myasthenia gravis, Guillain-Barré syndrome or chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy. Located in the Multiple Sclerosis Centre of Catalonia (Cemcat), we are leaders in Catalonia in offering care to patients with multiple sclerosis, and are responsible for significant research and teaching activity.
At the Clinical Neuroimmunology Department, our mission is to improve the health and quality of life of people with neuroimmunological diseases according to their individual needs and choices. The key to achieving this is comprehensive care.
We have a multidisciplinary team of staff who work to offer early diagnosis, personalised treatments —to relieve symptoms and offer neurorehabilitation—, reduced number of hospital admissions, outpatient care and even home care, always actively including patients and their families.
Multiple sclerosis is a chronic disease affecting the central nervous system. The immune system reacts against the body’s myelin, a substance that covers the neurones and that transmits nerve impulses. This reaction causes them to slow and be interrupted. MS is a degenerative disease and the second most common cause of neurological impairment in young people (20-40 years old). Neither the cause nor any cure have yet been discovered.
Although the cause is still unknown, the immune system is understood to react in a way that damages the body’s myelin. Loss of myelin causes alterations to brain function, the spinal cord or the optic nerve, and may cause the loss of neuronal tissue. Long term, it can also directly destroy the neurones themselves.
Areas where myelin is lost, called “lesions”, or “demyelinated plaques” appear as hardened areas in nervous tissue. These lesions can appear in multiple locations in the brain, the spinal cord or the optic nerve.
There are multiple symptoms that can appear in two contexts: in the form of specific episodes and/or with increasing disability.
Flare-ups are periods of clinical changes lasting more than 24 hours and that tend to diminish with time, although in some cases there may be lasting effects. If the disease progresses, however, then symptoms appear gradually and accumulate fairly progressively and slowly. Some people only suffer a period of flare-ups, in others the disease is only progressive, and for others it may become progressive following a period of flare-ups.
Depending on the areas affected, symptoms can include:
Balance and coordination may also be affected, as well as urinary function and sexual function.
The number of cases of multiple sclerosis is on the increase worldwide, and has reached a figure of 230 in every 100,000 people in some regions. In Spain, its prevalence is around 100 cases for every 100,000 people. 2.3 million are estimated to be affected around the world, of whom 45,000 were diagnosed in Spain and 7,500 in Catalonia. It is more common in women; two to three women are diagnosed with MS for every man affected. It is usually diagnosed in young adults. Although genetic factors do play a role, it is not considered an inherited disease. Studies show that the increase in cases diagnosed could be due to improvements in diagnostic methods and the quality of epidemiological studies, but also due to the increased risk posed by environmental factors. Vitamin D deficiency is currently associated with the disease.
Diagnosis is complex and carried out by studying the patient's medical history, neurological testing, MRI scan, lumbar puncture and evoked potentials.
Treatment for multiple sclerosis is divided into treating the cause and treating the symptoms.
Treating the cause is based on administering drug treatments orally, endovenously or subcutaneously to try to slow the progression of the disease. Nowadays, a series of drugs of varying efficacy, safety and tolerability are available. The current challenge is to provide the right drug for the right patient; an approach known as “personalised” or “precision medicine”, in addition to quickly detecting patients who do not respond well to a given treatment.
Treating the symptoms: drug treatments are available for some symptoms but not others. A holistic approach to multidisciplinary rehabilitation is used where drug treatments are not available. This type of treatment has been shown to be effective at reducing the impact of the disease on patients’ social life and activities.
Although there are no specific recommendations to prevent the disease, a healthy lifestyle is important (healthy diet, not smoking, moderate exercise, etc.). This will encourage better brain health and can prevent the disease worsening.
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