Zeitschrift für Zellwissenschaft und Therapie
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A Short Review on Predisposing Environmental Exposures and Related Methodological Approaches in Pediatric Multiple Sclerosis

Silvy Pilotto*, Roberto Bergamaschi, Sandra D’Alfonso, Filippo Martinelli-Boneschi, Angelo Ghezzi, Maura Pugliatti

Pediatric Multiple Sclerosis (PedMS) is a rare but highly informative disease whose etiology is currently unknown but likely due to a complex interaction between genetic and environmental factors. Considering the overall MS population, pediatric onsets are reported to be around 3%-10% with some discrepancies derived by considering different age-range among studies. The lack of cultural-validated and published tools for collecting environmental exposures in PedMS has limited knowledge on etiology. The availability of comprehensive and validated questionnaires could improve PedMS modern research in providing reliable, repeatable, cross-cultural evidence on the topic. This brief review describes the main methodological approaches on the study of environmental risk factors involved in determining PedMS.