[Clinical characteristics and diagnostic criteria of the onset of multiple sclerosis].

The study of initial symptoms of disseminated sclerosis in 250 patients showed the disease to manifest mostly by one, less frequently by two or more symptoms. The following symptoms occurred earlier and more frequently than others: locomotor disorders (transient mono- or parapareses); limited paresthesias, hypesthesias and pains; retrobulbar neuritis, transient pareses of ocular muscles; while vestibular, cerebellar and vesicular disorders were encountered less frequently. A definite correlation between the type of onset (mono- or polysymptomatic) and a further clinical course was established. The following criteria are offered for the first attack diagnosis; unsteadiness and reversibility of initial symptoms, frequent detection of clinical dissociations in the initial symptoms structure, spontaneous remissions of different duration between the first and recurrent attacks.